Golfing Comes To Muskogee

In the summer of 1902, residents in Muskogee started talking about establishing a country club. This led to the organization of a club near Fort Gibson named the Town and Country Club. Tams Bixby, a newspaper publisher, served as the first president. J. Fentress Wisdom was the club secretary. Within five years, however, use of a site on the east side of the Arkansas River drew opposition.

During the first month of 1907, organizers formed the Muskogee Golf Association. Their purpose was to establish a club closer to Muskogee. In addition, it was the new club's intention to absorb the Town and Country Club in Fort Gibson.

The golf club, limited to 100 members, paid $160 an acre to purchase a hundred acre tract from a Mr. Garland. This land northeast of town had been a cotton farm. The new location was near Hyde Park and was accessible by trolley. It was located three miles outside of the Muskogee city limits. While being more convenient, it was still far enough away from the noise and dust of town life.

The new location already contained a large house that could serve as a temporary clubhouse. Having a connection to the city water line was a bonus. The organizers planned to spend $25,000 more for new buildings and landscaping.

Just after Independence Day, the club sold the property at Fort Gibson to Frank J. Boudinot. This property included the barrack building and other structures used by officers stationed at the post decades earlier. With funds in hand, planning began.

The club brought in a specialist from St. Louis to help with the landscaping. George E. Kessler had previously been in charge of city parks for both St. Louis and Kansas City. He also landscaped the 1,200-acre property used for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Kessler, a German, was a pioneering American landscape architect.

Kessler envisioned a fountain, immense flowerbeds, shady walks and vine-covered pergolas. He also thought a vegetable garden should accompany the wide stretch of lawns. He drew plans for tennis courts, too.

Construction of the new clubhouse began almost immediately. The new building cost $6-7,000. About the same time, the club built a golf course. Underbrush, weeds and old cotton plants made way for the first nine holes. This was the second nine-hole golf course built in Oklahoma.

J. F. Darby, president in 1908, promoted the expansion of membership. By the end of April that year, there were a hundred and thirty-five members, a third more than the old limit allowed.

On May 23, 1908, the club hosted its first handicap golf tournament. The grass barely covered the golf course. A dance followed the game that evening. The club's first golf pro arrived two weeks later.

William Nichols arrived in June, having learned the game in his native country of Scotland. Besides giving golfing lessons, he would win the first Oklahoma Open Golf Tournament in 1910. He followed this with another win the next year. He also won in 1914 and 1920. Muskogee's golf pro was truly Oklahoma's master golfer. Many local residents learned to play golf from his tutoring.

Dog Tagging in Muskogee

City founders felt there was a problem with an over population of wild animals at the time Muskogee became incorporated in 1898. They enacted the city's first ordinance to regain control with the passage of Ordinance No. 15.

This ordinance, for the first time, required the tagging of dogs. Tagging cost the owner a dollar a year. Yet, if one of the town's police officers picked up a pet, the fine was five dollars. Just like today's tags, a hundred years ago tags contained the year and a number. The ordinance specified that the tag be made of tin or copper. Furthermore, it specified that the tag be affixed to a leather collar. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

If an officer found a dog without a tag, the officer was empowered to "arrest" and impound the animal. This happens today, but the public does not think of the animal as being arrested.

The ordinance of July 5, 1898, exempted a trained dog from the ordinance's requirement of being tagged. This ordinance allowed untagged dogs if they remained beside their masters. Such an untagged animal was safe from arrest on Muskogee's streets. A later ordinance removed this exception.

Dog lovers formed the Muskogee Kennel Club before 1906. Showing dogs earned the owner bragging rights. Just before the end of the year, Edward L. Halsell represented the club in a contest in Arkansas. His dog, named "Kentucky Lead," won first place. A banner, fox horn and $50 silver cup were the prizes he brought home. Knowledgeable sportsmen men considered Kentucky Lead to be the fastest red fox dog in America.

Slightly over a year later, dogs were again over running Muskogee. Finally, an alderman called for the city's police department to have four men use their revolvers on any untagged dog in the city limits. As barbaric as this solution seems today, it was the common answer to the problem of over population in that day.

In rural areas of the county, farmers periodically conducted hunts to reduce the number of wild dogs. These hunts were an effort to reduce losses from wild dogs attacking their livestock. Bert Pitts of McClain Township reported in 1909 that wild dogs were more like wolves or coyotes, but in fact descended from "two female tramp dogs" that grew to a pack of eight animals. Bert's specific complaint was that the dogs were killing four or five hogs a night. "The farmers there were up in arms," Bert reported.

By the end of 1909, Muskogee County reported more registered dogs than any other county in the state according to one report. This reflected upon the efforts put into animal registration. The number of dogs that year, by the way, was 5,156.

At the same time, the Muskogee Kennel Club reorganized. The following dog lovers urged others to join them. The organizers included Mrs. J. Hutchings White, Galen Nichols, J. L. Allen, W. R. Eaton, J. J. Brotherton and Ed Bothwell.

Today, the staff of the city's Animal Control Unit work hard in reuniting owners with lost pets. When an animal is "arrested," it is guaranteed safe housing at the city's animal shelter.

Andrew W. Robb and Family

The Robb family helped establish the town of Muskogee. Andrew W. Robb was the patriarch. A Pennsylvanian by birth, Andrew was living in Kansas when the Civil War began. By the war's end, he worked as a first lieutenant in Company F, Third Indian Home Guard.

Before his discharge, A. W. went to Bates County, Missouri, and married Martha Requa. He brought his wife after the war's end to Fort Gibson, where he served as a quartermaster. His war credentials enabled him to begin working as a government freighter. In this capacity, he hauled the first supplies to Fort Sill.

After three years, he moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas, where he opened a grocery business. Within two years, he was ready to move again.

The establishment of a post office in Muskogee by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad prompted the growing Robb family to relocate. By 1871, two daughters and a son (Mary, John and Katherine) brought greater responsibilities to A. W. He looked to the creation of a town as providing a better future.

Arriving in Muskogee, the Robb's constructed the community's first house. At that time, there were railroad boxcars being used as a hotel.

A. W. built his home on a lot that later became the northeast corner of North Third and Broadway. This lot would ultimately sell for $70,000 for the construction of the Flynn-Ames building in 1909.

Andrew and his wife, Martha, welcomed the birth of their fourth child in this home. Jessie's birth on December 13, 1872, marked the first birth of a white child in Muskogee. Alice Robertson was Jessie's godmother. Later, fruit trees and roses decorated the property.

Robb opened a mercantile business in another frame building closer to the railroad tracks. Operating under the name of Atkinson and Co., Robb sold a little bit of everything needed by the community. For several years, it was the only hardware business in town.

Robb helped to establish the First Presbyterian Church. Organized April 18, 1875, it was the first church built in Muskogee. Mr. and Mrs. Robb joined by profession of faith immediately. A. W. later taught Sunday School classes and served as a Ruling Elder. He remained active in church affairs throughout his life.

Mr. Robb sold his share of his partnership in 1875 and went to work with James Patterson. The following year, he purchased a partnership in the firm that became Patterson and Robb. For over a decade their business provided first class merchandise to the buying public.

Then the partners suffered a total loss valued at $40,000 in a fire in 1887. A two-story brick building replaced their former burnt wooden structure. The new building became noteworthy for two reasons. First, the partners divided their merchandise into categories, thereby becoming Muskogee's first department store.

About the same time, the partners also hired a woman to work in their store. She was a novelty for a while because no other business in town had a woman working in such a public occupation.

There will be more about the Robb family in a future column.

Muskogee's First Telephones

"I'll phone you." One hundred and ten years ago this summer Muskogee residents began hearing another person tell them that they would use the latest technology in communication.

Mr. A. Z. English was an insurance agent. He represented more than a half dozen insurance companies in Indian Territory. In his business of dealing with home offices in the eastern United States, he saw firsthand how important telephone service was.

During the spring of 1898, he decided to bring the concept to Muskogee. Those joining in the investment included Captain F. B. Severs (Mr. English's father-in-law), S. M. Rutherford, C. W. Turner and Dr. Jesse Blakemore. The largest paper in town saw the effort as the "advance guard of civilization and progress." Most teenagers today would agree.

In fairly short order, English ordered the initial supplies and equipment. By May, his workers were planting telephone poles across town. The first single-wire switchboard English ordered could handle only forty lines.

Twenty businesses subscribed for telephone service quickly. Workers began stringing the single strand of copper wire as soon as poles began appearing.

Not all businesses were interested in having telephone service, however. When Mr. English asked the president of the First National Bank, the president could not see any advantage in having a telephone. This is interesting because the telephone company switchboard was installed on the second floor of the First National Bank building. More slowly, residents subscribed to the remaining lines.

The Muskogee National Telephone Company began operating on Monday, June 4, 1898. The first telephone operator hired to make line connections by plugging in a connecting cable sometimes went hours without a call coming in. If the operator planned to be away from work, as she was one Sunday afternoon in mid-July, the telephone subscribers saw the announcement in the newspaper.

Yet, there was a lot to talk about during the summer of 1898. The Curtis Act passed Congress. When it was signed into law, it insured the breakup of tribal control in Indian Territory. Also on the national front, the United States went to war with Spain with many local boys serving in the Rough Riders.

Residents also discussed significant local events during these months. Muskogee became an incorporated town earlier in the year. An election during the spring ushered in the town's first mayor and city council. Just as the telephone company began operation, residents and businesses found themselves having to live under the town's first city ordinances.

Throughout the fall and winter, residents explored the advantages and disadvantages of having local telephone service. They found out, for instance, that the telephone serviceman was a part-time employee.

Unfortunately, fire destroyed the telephone company slightly more than seven months after service began. The great fire the following February that wiped out Muskogee's downtown district engulfed the First National Bank building, too.

Mr. English suffered a total lost of about $40,000. Part of his lost included about $12,000 he invested in purchasing the switchboard, telephones, wire and poles.