Tips for Interviewing

Budding family historians often start by asking their own relatives questions. When I began 40 years ago, the Depression Era topics were not very interesting to me because there were a large number of people I could talk to about their experiences. Today there are fewer people alive who can tell what it was like to live during the Depression. The passage of time means that family historians need to get busy if they wish to preserve their family's stories from this period.

The first step is selecting a relative who can answer your questions. In selecting a subject to interview look for someone who can tell you about their own experiences. Such a person will be able to tell you first-hand accounts they personally lived through. By choosing this relative, they are more likely to pass on accurate information.

When I began interviewing relatives, I was interested in Civil War stories, especially those about the death of my great-great-grandfather. Because no-one from the Civil War era was alive, I found myself talking with elderly children and grandchildren. As a result of hearing second-hand stories by non-participants, I found that the stories did not completely agree. This is a result of time distorting the details in a person's recollections. I treasure these stories despite the flaws in using them. But I have to treat them with less faith of their accuracy.

The structure of questions is the next consideration after selecting a relative. One wants to ask open-ended questions because such questions prompt the telling of stories. If I asked "Did you live during the Depression?" I should expect a "Yes" or "No" answer. This is an example of a direct question. These are used for clarifying a detail in a story.

Most of the time, it is best to ask open-ended questions. Such queries do not ask for specific details. Their focus is very broad. Here is an opening interview question one might ask. "What were your experiences during the Great Depression?" At this point your relative may pick up any train of thought that comes to his mind.

Let your relative tell you whatever comes to their attention. If you are interested in one specific event, it is possible to ask about that event later. It is generally best to ask broad questions first before getting to more specific questions. Oftentimes, one understands why the details come to mind after having first heard a broader discussion of the period.

My experience is that a relative often wanders into the far corners of their mind for events that were significant to them, but are ones that do not seem important to the interviewer. This is what family history is all about. Let the storytelling proceed until there is a pause. Then you can redirect the discussion if you wish.

However, many times the stories treasured most of all come out spontaneously.

Tom Root, Crime Reporter

Tom B. Root was a long-time crime reporter for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix. He began life on July 22nd, 1892, in Kansas City, Missouri, the oldest son of Walter C. and Laura Root. "His father was a prominent architect in Kansas City...and his cousin John Wellborn Root was one of the outstanding architects in Chicago."

He grew up on McGee Avenue in an upper-class neighborhood of wealthy families. Like others on the block, his family enjoyed the services of a cook and servant in their home. Though few recollections of his childhood and early education survive, Tom likely heard a lot about the influential residents of Kansas City given his father's stature as an architect. Surely, the most discussed topic at home would have been the activities of Thomas Joseph Pendergast.

During the 1920's and 1930's, Pendergast was the political boss of Kansas City. During this period, few financial or political decisions at city hall were made without his input or support. The ward politics of Kansas City were lively argued by both local and state newspapers, but the Kansas City Journal-Post seemed to be the most supportive of the Pendergast machine.

And the Kansas City Journal-Post was where Tom began his newspaper career. Those days of big machine politics and mob warfare between the world wars influenced Tom throughout his life. The strongest recollections of Tom by his son and co-workers are of his telling stories of his days reporting for the Journal-Post. "He seemed to know everything about the city government in Kansa [sic] City...[and] the city machine with Pendergast, etc."

Even after Tom left Kansas City, the newswire reports of events happening back home continued to exert an influence on him. Tom got to see the rise of Harry Truman before he became a national politician because Truman was a Pendergast man. He would thusly have seen how the Kansas City Journal-Post was the main supporter of Sen. Harry Truman's 1939 campaign for re-election. This hard-fought campaign occurred on the heels of Pendergast's conviction of tax evasion.

Tom Root went to New Orleans and worked on a newspaper there briefly before coming to Muskogee in 1938. "He was completely devoted to his newspaper work. On the few times that I saw him he would talk nonstop about news events. [He] had an artistic heritage and I believe devoted it all to his work on the newspaper. He was an accomplished pianist and would play classical music to keep himself entertained."

Warren Weakland, long-time sports reporter for the Muskogee Daily-Phoenix who worked with Tom, said that "Whenever Tom was working 'the desk' editing articles for the next issue, everyone knew to watch out for his stories. Tom had one finger cut off and when he was typing some of his words would have spaces in place of missing letters."

According to Warren, "Tom knew the local bootleggers and rum runners because he was basically a crime reporter who was always going out with the police on raids. Mostly," he said, "it was hard liquor back then."

Tom's obituary states that he "covered the impeachment trials in the Oklahoma Senate of Gov. Henry Johnston, a federal trial for then-Sen. Huey Long in Louisiana and the trials of Thomas J. Pendergast, former Kansas City mayor." At his retirement in 1965, he was described as the "Federal Building reporter...for 23 years."

Dr. Root, said that his father "unfortunately had the vice of so many newsmen at that time of smoking too many cigarettes. He would light one cigarette from another and dispose of three packs a day. He developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a result and died at eighty eight in full possession of his faculties." Thomas Bullene Root died February 27th, 1980 in Taylors, SC.

Tent City That Became Muskogee

The tent city that became Muskogee was at the end of the railroad tracks. It housed card sharks, thieves and murderers. This picture is of a "Terminus Rough," which means a person who lived in the turbulent world of a railhead city. Muskogee had a violent reputation before it was properly established in 1872.

As told by a conductor a couple of years later, the railhead that became Muskogee had "terminus troubles" in 1871. Wide-eyed travelers in a "gaily-decorated sleeping-saloon" railroad car listened intently as he spoke of murders and threats of recent times.

"Three men were shot about twenty feet from this same car in one night at Muskogee. Oh! This was a little hell, this was. The roughs took possession here in earnest. The keno and monte players had any quantity of tents all about this section, and life was most uncertain thing to keep you ever saw."

"One night a man lost all he had at keno; so he went around behind the tent and tried to shoot the keno-dealer in the back; he missed him, but killed another man. The keno man just got a board and put it up behind himself, and the game went on."

"One day one of the roughs took offence at something the railroad folks said, so he ran our train off the track the next morning. There was no law here, and no means of getting any. As fast as the railroad moved on, the roughs pulled up stakes and moved with it."

"We tried to scare them away, but they didn't scare worth a cent. It was next to impossible for a stranger to walk through one of these canvas towns without getting shot at. The graveyards were sometimes better populated than the towns next them."

All gamblers and card players needed for starting a game was a little protection from the elements, so they used tents. As the railroad pushed south dealers folded their tents and moved to keep up with the money.

Muskogee was a special spot because it was about the right distance down the tracks from the previous railroad town. After considering the Checotah area for a location, railroad officials selected this hilltop. Muskogee was an ideal spot for a town. To secure the location, a Post Office application was submitted for approval. In January, 1872, embryonic Muskogee received its post office designation and officially came into existence.

At first the honest businessmen operated out of tents, too. These merchants began erecting wooden buildings as quickly as they could afford to. The lawlessness of the tent town did not cease when the railroad pushed construction south of the Canadian River. The pace of development, however, quickened the approach of western civilization.

A Date at the Water Tower

Charlene Hibbard overcame her reluctance. She said "before technology...you had to find your own fun." This is a story of a boy and a girl looking for something to do together in Muskogee almost 47 years ago.

She and her husband, then boyfriend, were on a date one warm moonlit night in 1960. It was usual at that time for kids to drive around town, and it was not unusual for couples to drive up to Honor Heights Park.

"As we drove past the Old Water Tower," she said, "Hib asked if I wanted to climb to the top of it. After being reassured that it could be accomplished, we parked the car and proceeded to the Tower." After entering through a doorway at ground level, they found the ladder on an inside wall. "It was fairly dark and I was probably clinging to each rung as if it were the last I would ever hold. It was easy to climb if you did not look down."

"We climbed out and sat on the roof of the water tower. The roof was covered in tin in the shape of wedges, like a pie. The wedges were held together with lead." Hib said it was possible to get into the water through some kind of opening. He said that "the water was cold, dark and spooky if you swam in it."

"Once on a solid roof top though I guess I felt safe enough. You could see Muskogee spread out below. I just remember sitting on top of the water tower looking out over Muskogee which was not much different from just looking at it from the parking space on the ground below."

"There were no street lights on Shawnee, but you could see the headlights and taillights of cars on Shawnee and Highway 69. Only Hilltop [truck stop] really radiated a lot of light. The town [of Muskogee] itself was mostly dark. There were only street lights on the main streets that were deemed necessary and they deemed very few as necessary."

"All you could hear were the night sounds of birds, an occasional passing car and small animals in the trees and grass around us. It was a peaceful time and an enjoyable adventure. I wish I had had a chance to climb the old Water Tower one more time."

Charlene's adventure was possible because of the design of the water tower. The outer shell of the tower surrounded the bowl that held the water. Buttresses were spaced around the bowl to support the weight of the water. These buttresses had doorways in them that allowed an inspector to walk around the bottom of the bowl.

The photograph above shows the bowl and buttresses. The outer shell and top have already been removed. One of the doorways is visible in the left buttress.

Stories like this one create images of cherished memories. Do you have a special old memory of Muskogee? Email me with your cherished story. My email address is muskogeehistory@gmail.com.