Summit, One of Oklahoma's All Black Towns

Muskogee County is the home of two communities in the "All Black Towns of Oklahoma" exhibit at the Three Rivers Museum during the month of February. The exhibit consists of fifteen separate panels. They were created by the staff at the Oklahoma Historical Society. "All Black Towns" means communities formed and operated after the Civil War by recently freed African American.

Each panel contains text and images telling the stories about the birth, prosperity and, in some cases, the demise of each of Oklahoma's black towns. Surviving towns include Boley, Brooksville, Clearview, Grayson, Langston, Lima, Red Bird, Rentiesville, Summit, Taft, Tatums, Tullahassee and Vernon.

Summit is one of the two All Black Towns located in Muskogee County. It is among the communities still being operated as originally planned.

It is uncertain when Summit became a center of settlement for African Americans. It was in the Summit vicinity that the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad planned to establish a depot and railroad division headquarters in 1872. Major John Foreman prevented those plans from fully developing when he poured a barrel of salt into a well.

The MKT railroad tracks passed the community on the west side. The railroad left an old wooden box car on a siding in January, 1887. Two men used it to establish a telegraph station at Summit. They lived and slept in the box car, too.

At one time there was a collection of livestock holding pens and a platform for shipping purposes. A fire on August 2, 1902 destroyed most of the pens. The railroad primarily used the platform and pens for shipping farm production during the summer harvests.

The United States Post Office established service for the community in 1896. Mark L. Minter was the first postmaster. He took office on May 18 of that year.

The paving of Jefferson Highway during the 1910's opened up transportation for Summit residents. This initially improved commercial prospects for the town. In the long term, however, townsmen found greater employment in Muskogee.

Jumping ahead thirty years, the town school received a Works Progress Administration grant in 1940. The $13,782 grant funded the construction of an addition and improvements. The grant authorized the employment of twenty-six men to work on the Summit school project.

As the economic opportunities drew employment to Muskogee, Summit's population began to dry up. A wolf hunt conducted there in 1948 illustrates how rural the area was becoming.

Summit is beginning to improve after a long decline. The town is now being led by Mayor Greg Smith. He is working to bring more businesses into town. At the same time, he continues working to improve services offered by the city. He is building on the success ten years ago that created Summit’s new civic center.

Bootie's Restaurant is a major business enterprise in Summit today. It is located at 6303 Oktaha Road. This is the Old Oktaha Road that a segment of US 69 bypasses. I found the owner to be congenial and cheerful last spring. The menu provides a full list of meals for all tastes. The owners constantly work to improve their building.

The All Black Town of Taft will be the subject next week. In the meantime, celebrate Black History Month with a visit to the Three Rivers Museum.

Pomeroy's Arrival in Muskogee

Fortunately for Muskogee, Marcus Mills Pomeroy was a lifelong writer and editor. Born in 1833 in Elmira, New York, he was back in his home state in 1868 after spending more than a decade in Wisconsin. It was in the mid-west that he made a name for himself as an anti-Lincoln Copperhead Democrat.

Returning to his home state enabled him to start editing and writing for the "New York Democrat" newspaper controlled by the Boss Tweed syndicate in New York City. After a couple of years, Pomeroy broke with the political leader over allegations of Tweed's corruption.

Pomeroy then published a weekly newspaper called the "Pomeroy Democrat." It was during this time that he took a railroad publicity excursion. On the trip, he passed through the new train station in Indian Territory called "Muskogee Station." His recollections were anonymously quoted three years later in the travelogue entitled "The Great South."

Mark Pomeroy, who went by the nickname of "Brick," was a guest of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. He was one of a number of other members of the party who boarded a sleeping car in Sedalia, Missouri on Thursday February 8, 1872 for the ride to the end of the MKT tracks in Indian Territory. This promotional packet was for advertising the railroad.

The MKT train left Sedalia about two o'clock Thursday morning. Pomeroy and the other reporters on the trip spent parts of Thursday and Friday sightseeing in Missouri and Kansas towns. The MKT Palace car, called "Young America," arrived at the Muskogee Station at 11:00 Friday night.

On Saturday morning, members of the excursion party found themselves at the last station on the MKT line. In fact, the town was only about six weeks old.

Pomeroy said the town was situated on the Indian prairie with a far distant horizon faintly visible in the west. He described many of the dwellings in the young town as being much like a Bedouin collection of tents.

The reporters probably remained in the new town only a day or so. There was little to see. Pomeroy makes no mention of a building. Railroad companies typically dropped a boxcar on a siding to become a town's first depot and post office. Reporters likely found this to also be the case in Muskogee.

The iron rails proceeded on southward. In fact, the surveyors were finishing staking the two hundred foot wide right-of-way toward the Red River on the Texas border. The grading crew was already at the Canadian River. The rail-laying crew was marching south at the rate of a mile a day.

While Pomeroy makes no mention of it, the MKT certainly allowed the reporters to ride the work train to the end of the rails. It was here they saw the actual construction of the railroad. Then the reporters rode the work train back to "town."

Pomeroy reboarded the "Young America" for his return trip. Back in Sedalia, he penned his first descriptions. Now we know that Marcus Mills Pomeroy was the first reporter who visited Muskogee. We also now know exactly when he came and why.

Old Muskogee County Stories

Newspaper reporters emphasized humor in their articles during Muskogee's early days. Here are a few humorous snippets I believe you will enjoy.

The Nye Show Company set up on an empty lot near the South Fourth Street residence of United States Marshal Leo Bennett. This was unfortunate for one escapee because he entered the marshal's residence during his flight. The show company's black bear was on the loose! (1906)

T. L. Pegram owned a dry goods store down town. He also owned a cat. Pegram's cat ate the chickens owned by E. R. Durfeys who lived nearby. Finally spotting the attacker, Durfeys shot Pegram's cat. The newspaper reported that the city marshal, the city water department, the city sewer inspector and the electric light company are all involved in the row. (1908)

Deputy US Marshal Pritchard was trying to prove a point in court one day. He thought five witnesses ought to be enough. He thereupon called five farmers to the witness stand. Each was asked to sample some illegal liquor as a test of the intoxicating properties of the contraband. That started the five witnesses on a bender which ultimately lead to the destruction of hotel furniture. Deputy Marshal Pritchard received the bill. (1906)

Muskogee was a prominent town in 1903. Its growth often attracted financiers from back east. Recent investors were very surprised by the young Muskogee men who claimed prominent titles. One easterner was put in the know when a "colonel" said his title only cost $5.

Robert Bowie lived in Webbers Falls. Like most men in their youth, he came to the court clerk's office in Muskogee to take out a marriage license. The sparkle in his eyes was Miss Minnie Nash. The next week the license was mailed back to the court clerk. Bowie wrote the following across the license, "She married another before I got there, therefore I can not use this." (1906)

Fishing in a puddle in the middle of North Main Street is typical of the way residents have called attention to problems needing work. Homer Baughman joined Campbell Russell in this pantheon of keen observers. Homer mailed the newspaper a collection of mature cockle burrs he found on a parking lot on West Broadway. (1909)

A circus manager went seeking an example of an "oldest inhabitant" in the Flint Hills east of Tahlequah. Upon finally locating the house, the old man refuses to join the circus. The oldster said that "he cannot leave his father who was at the moment putting his grandfather to bed upstairs." (1906)

Patrolman George Ledbetter rushed to the Creek Wagon Yard on reports of a death. Thinking that a murder had occurred, he asked the yard attendant upon arrival where the murderer was. "There ain't no murder. It's a dying horse and I jest wanted to know what to do with him." (1905)

Here is how another member of Muskogee's finest dealt with a real crime. Homer B. Spaulding, for whom the park downtown is named, was incensed one day when he called the police department. Patrolman Grant Huddleston was assigned the duty of finding the culprit that stole a pair of Spaulding's long john's formerly hanging on the family clothesline in the back yard. Officer Huddleston knew he was dealing with a complaint from one of Muskogee's most respected residents when he declared that he would find the culprit "if he had to undress every man in town!" (1908)

Generational Changes Since WWII

One way of thinking about the past is thinking in terms of generations. We all know what a generation is. It is when the next child or grandchild is born. Quantifying a generation's duration is more difficult.

Genealogists, and some sociologists, have grappled with measuring the length of a generation. Generally speaking, they agree that one lasts from ages fifteen to forty-five years for a woman. However, the frequency of births occurring when a person is fifteen, or forty-five, has been low. Because most births occur when a woman is between twenty-five and thirty-three years of age, many researchers formulate their calculations on three or four generations per one hundred years.

I was thinking about this in regards to Barbara Higbee's death in 2002. She was interested in Muskogee's photographic history. From yard sales and resale booths, Barbara collected over a thousand images depicting early Muskogee sights. Many area residents recall her presenting slide shows based upon her collection.

Four years before her death, Barbara allowed the Three Rivers Museum to scan and preserve digital copies of about one hundred and sixty images from her collection. In looking at the Higbee collection in the museum, I have come to realize that a lot has changed in the passage of time. Generational change.

There are some images that are dated to the half decade following the end of World War Two. This 1945 to 1950 period falls fully two generations ago. As I was examining these photographs, I began to notice things that I no longer see. Here are some of my impressions.

There was a parade marching down West Broadway in 1948. It drew a large crowd of viewers. Two boys were watching the floats pass by. It was not the decorated floats that caught my attention. Nor was it the boys. It was the bicycles parked just behind the boys. They must have just arrived moments before the photographer snapped the picture.

We rarely see boys on bicycles riding across town anymore. It used to be normal for boys to have the freedom to range far and wide across town. I don't see that happening very often any more. Bicycle riders today mostly tend to be people who think of bike riding as a "sport."

Parade turnout was higher during these years. Perhaps it was the patriotic hangover. People dressed up to go out in public. Men and women were still wearing wide-brimmed hats. The khaki pants once worn as part of a uniform were being worn now as civilian attire with decreasing frequency.

There is something else that comes to mind when I looked at photographs dated between 1946 and 1948. Many of the automobiles driving on Muskogee streets had a divider down the middle of the front windshield. This was because the two pieces of glass were flat. Today's automobile enthusiasts would love to acquire the cars still on the roadways during this period.

Theaters, especially the Ritz, posted movie posters on trashcans on local sidewalks. Western movies portrayed good guys against outlaws. Right and wrong were clearly divided in the plotline.

What do you miss seeing from the days following the end of World War Two? You may email me at muskogeehistory AT gmail.com. I'll be looking to hear from you.

Sudhoelter the Architect

The Lyric Theater appears in a 1907 insurance map. Charles Henry Sudhoelter, Jr., served as the architect for the theater construction project. The theater stood on the southeast corner of Fourth and West Broadway. But, more about the theater later.

The architect was the son of Henry and Emily Sudhoelter, both immigrants from Wurtenburg, Germany. Charles was born shortly after the end of his father's service in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Charles' professional career began with him working in his father's carpentry business in St. Louis, Missouri. But he preferred designing to hammering. So he moved to Kansas City. There he worked as a draughtsman for Truitt and Esmond Building and Loan Company between 1889 and 1891.

He then moved back to St. Louis. In 1892 he built a row house in the Columbia Brewery District.It still stands at 1831-33 North Twentieth Street.

By 1903, Charles was living in the booming town of Muskogee and working as an architect.About this time, he earned the contract to design the Oklahoma Territory's exhibit for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This show is also known as the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The exposition was a celebration of the Jeffersonian acquisition in 1803. The Oklahoma Territory exhibit still exists in El Reno, Oklahoma.

His next big project was a church being built on the southwest corner of Seventh and Boston Street. The image is a architectural rendering of the "Second" Methodist Church. This church shortly thereafter became the first home for the Saint Paul United Methodist Church.

Sudhoelter received the commission for building the Lyric Theater in 1907. This vaudevillian show palace had a capacity for 850. The 53 feet fronting West Okmulgee cost Fred Scheruber $15,000. Though there was no provision for heating the theater initially, it was wired for electrical lights throughout.

The Muskogee theater was designed to resemble a Lyric Theater already standing in Joplin, Missouri. It was two stories tall with a pressed brick front.

Students did not enter the first building of the Oklahoma Baptist University until the fall of 1915. Yet this structure was designed about 1910 by Sudhoelter. It was built in Shawnee.

This project was one of a series of school buildings he designed for Oklahoma. Among his other school buildings were the first East Central Normal School building, later the Science Hall, in Ada and the building for the Southwestern State Normal School in Weatherford.

This native of St. Louis returned to his home state in 1912. He chose to settle in Joplin. His success in Oklahoma provided a solid foundation for his future. Another cornerstone occurred after this move. After being married to his profession for over a decade, he finally took a wife in Missouri.

By the time Charles H. Sudhoelter died in 1937, his commissions included many Joplin structures. Some of them were a mortuary building for the Lanpher Funeral Home, the First Baptist Church sanctuary, the Market Square Building, the Robertson Apartments, and the Browning Buick Building.

His architectural legacy is also preserved in the Stone County Courthouse located in Joplin. He continued to work until the last two years of his life.

Muskogee's New Year, 1878

Early contemporary accounts of Muskogee events are scarce. Here are a few from an early newspaper around the time of New Year's Day.

Just like the weather of today, it was cold and freezing as New Year's Day of 1878 approached. Temperatures dropped well below freezing at night. Snow fell several days before the year's change. New Year Day saw a high of 37 degrees. That night the temperature reached a low of 23 degrees. So reported Sergeant George H. Crane of the U. S. Army's Signal Service stationed at Fort Gibson post.

There were no Black Friday sales in Muskogee following Christmas. Merchants in the small town may have offered sales on a few items after Christmas passed, but they placed no advertisements suggesting they offered large discounts. The only New Year's sales notice was for a watch, clock and silverware store in Denison, Texas.

The parties and dinners that celebrated Christmas apparently did not welcome in New Year's Day. The residents spent their efforts the week before and then treated the year's change over as another day. It was as if the celebrations of the week earlier had consumed the energies for partying in Muskogee.

There was only one party reported. Some small children in Tahlequah enjoyed attending a party on New Year's Day. Mr. Samuel Sixkiller's residence was the scene where "the little folk were pleasantly entertained." It is not clear that ushering in the New Year was the purpose.

The New Year of 1878 was a harbinger of change for Muskogee. The "Indian Journal" newspaper burnt to the ground on Christmas Day, 1876, in a fire that destroyed two other businesses. Because of financial support offered afterwards, the newspaper re-established itself in Eufaula. After almost nine months of publishing in that southern town, Marion P. Roberts announced that he was moving his press back to the larger town of Muskogee. News of the impending move was just beginning to spread as Muskogee townsmen celebrated New Year's Day.

Another announcement began circulating in the days before the beginning of the next year. Doctor R. I. Pearson of Fort Scott, Kansas said he would be traveling into the Indian Territory. His itinerary included stops at many of the communities in the northern half of the territory. He planned to visit Muskogee during January.

Dr. Pearson's arrival brought a surgeon dentist into the area. Dr. R. B. Howard of Fort Gibson recommended him. Dr. Pearson arrived by train. He took up residence in the Mitchell House, Muskogee's finest hotel located near the railroad depot. The hotel keeper saw patients arriving in pain and departing with fewer teeth.

Muskogee was continuing to attract residents and businessmen. Some of the new entrepreneurs were apparently operating without adhering to the letter of the law when dealing with Native Americans. In early January, the Office of Indian Affairs re-issued their instructions. The government admonished traders to follow all established rules and regulations when conducting their business.

This reminder came on the heels of tribal delegations from the Indian Territory visiting in Washington over the holidays. Members of each delegation sent their calling cards back to their hometown editor. The forerunner of the modern business card was commonly used in the nation's capital. In the Indian Territory, however, they were a novelty.

End of the Line, Part 3

First, a full size railroad was built to operate between Warner and Webbers Falls. It was named the Webbers Falls, Shawnee and Western Railroad Company. This railroad ran slightly less than ten and a half miles between the two towns.

Last week, the story was about Marion J. Maples and the beginning of motorcar service on the same tracks. For the first half of 1914, Maples operated his transportation service that provided no seats for passengers. At this point he moved to Warner, a town one third the size of Webbers Falls. We pick up the story again when Maples ceased operating his motorcar service.

Events took an interesting turn in the fall of 1914. Nicholas W. King also saw an opportunity to use the Webbers Falls tracks just like Maples had a year earlier. Though King was working as a carpenter at the time, he possessed a mechanical inclination. He purchased a gasoline powered automobile and modified the wheels to run on the rails like the previous train and motorcar.

In this business venture, King also operated on the rail line without license just as Maples had before him. But King set a schedule for his runs back and forth between the two towns. His schedule allowed Webbers Falls passengers to arrive in Warner in time to catch either the north or the south bound Midland Valley railroad trains.

Unlike Maples, King decided to not carry any freight. This simplified maintenance. At the same time it kept King's investment low.

His service was for passengers only. He also established a flat fare of fifty cents per passenger regardless of how many boarded his car for the next run. King's car, like Maples' flatbed passenger car before it, had no top to protect the passengers and driver.

King said he was going to purchase a canvas top for his car. He worried about the thirty-three minute run between towns was too fast. After all, he was traveling almost twenty miles per hour!

Like Maples' earlier effort, King's automobile was not built to hold up to long term, regular use. King's automobile runs became popular before mechanical problems caused interruptions in service.

Marion Maples stirred into action because he felt King was taking advantage of his own idea. He threatened to block King's use of the railroad track. Since both were operating outside of any legal agreement with the railroad, both stood on weak grounds.

The Webbers Falls, Shawnee and Western Railroad Company assumed control of the tracks. Then the railroad company abandoned operation between Webbers Falls and Warner. Over ninety years ago, the rails were torn out and went to a scrap dealer. Even the cross ties were dug up and sold. This ended the shortline railroad in southern Muskogee County.

Within a few years Nicholas King moved on to another venture. He is operating a garage in Fort Gibson in 1920. He was obviously using the practical experience gained running an automobile on a railroad track. Only now the automobiles he worked on stuck to the potholed roads of eastern Oklahoma.