1909 Muskogee Fire

It began simply enough. There was a break in a natural gas pipeline between Inola and Claremore. The break caused a sharp drop in the gas pressure that January day. Unfortunately, thirty thousand customers suffered in Muskogee, Wagoner and Inola.

It was a cold Wednesday morning when the cook started getting ready for hungry customers in the Saratoga Restaurant. When he tried to start a gasoline engine, there was an explosion in a fuel storage tank. Another account claims the fire started when grease caught fire on the stove. Either account is possible.

The flames spread to combustible furniture and to the wooden floor and ceiling. The alarm quickly sounded the call for the fire department. The fire hose and pumper wagon was horse pulled as it arrived on the scene. The firemen found low water pressure hampering their efforts to stop the fire early. After two hours of pumping, the pump on the fire wagon broke, too.

The low water pressure occurred because of Muskogee's growth. More Muskogee residents had running water than the standpipe reservoir on Tower Hill could provide. It would be another two years before a new, larger water reservoir would be built atop Agency Hill.

Soon the fire was spreading out of control. Smoke began rising throughout the whole of the German building where the restaurant was located. This office building stood on the southwest corner of Third Street and Broadway. The downstairs stores included a bakery, the Indian Curio Store and the Keystone Tailors shop. Upstairs were at least two apartments and offices for lawyers and real estate brokers.

Mrs. Georgia Browne was living in one of the apartments on the third floor. Upon being awaken, she hastily put on a robe and ran bare footed to alert another roomer living in an apartment down the hall. She suffered from smoke inhalation by the time a fireman carried her down a ladder screaming in hysteria. She lost a $2,000 pearl necklace in the fire.

The fire in the German building quickly leaped across a narrow alley to the Carolina building just to the south. The Saratoga Restaurant was adjacent to the alley. The stores on the ground floor of the Carolina building included a millinery shop, a coffee company, a meat market and a pool hall.

The second floor of the Carolina building housed offices for a dentist, four doctors and several real estate brokerage firms. Three women resided in apartments on the third floor. Desperation forced several of the ladies to consider jumping out windows to avoid the spreading flames. Fortunately, firemen were able to get ladders up in time to save them from leaping.

The Carolina and German buildings were completely destroyed. Only stretches of damaged brick walls remained standing. Besides smoke inhalation, George Cramer was the only other person hurt by the fire. He suffered injuries while cutting down electrical wires running to adjacent buildings.

Half of the buildings in the block bounded by Broadway and Okmulgee Avenues and Third and Fourth Streets were lost to the fire. Those on the west side survived because firemen pulled down some wooden shanties to prevent the fire from spreading.

The fire of January 13, 1909 was a reminder that just building brick buildings was not enough. This fire occurred almost exactly ten years following the great fire that destroyed the heart of Muskogee.

Following the fire of 1899, the city rebuilt with a determination that fires would never destroy Muskogee again. Ordinances were quickly passed to require brick and concrete construction downtown. Yet, the 1909 fire came close to getting out of hand. Had the fire spread to adjacent blocks, there would have been little the city could have done to prevent an even greater disaster from occurring because of the low water pressure.

Bob Bell's Bluff

My interview with Robert V. Bell of Tulsa began normally. As usual, I set up my tape recorder to record our conversation. Unbeknownst to me, a mechanical failure prevented the recording during the middle of our conversation. The following story was not taped that afternoon. Fortunately, Bob also told the same story to Daniel Haston. The following story is based on our joint recollections.

Bob Bell said he came to Muskogee in 1942 because he was newly assigned to work at the Muskogee Army Air Field, now called Davis Field. Bob said he arrived while construction was still underway.

He was a member of the Military Police at the air field for about two years. Most of his responsibilities involved seeing that civilians had photographs and fingerprints made when they went to work on the base.

The ringing phone that afternoon gave no hint of the coming events. Putting the receiver to his ear, Sergeant Bell heard a man exclaim, "Hurry!! He's killing people in the Engineering shack!!"

The sound of the speaker's voice, and the message, galvanized Bob as no other call did. He immediately grabbed a shotgun and some shells and ran to his Jeep. Upon reaching the engineering building, Sgt. Bell picked up his jammed shotgun as he stepped out of the Jeep.

He didn't hesitate. He raced to the front door with the useless semi-automatic weapon. Believing life and death hung in the balance, Sgt. Bell entered the base office without reloading his weapon.

The scene Bob found was of two men lying on the floor. One body lay slightly to his right. The body between him and the gunman showed blood pooling on the wooden floor.

Sgt. Bell recognized the shooter immediately. It was a man that he knew worked on the base. The gunman still held a revolver in his right hand pointed nowhere in particular.

"Johnny, PUT THE GUN DOWN. DON'T MAKE ME SHOOT YOU!!," Bob yelled. The shooter seemed to realize for the first time that a shotgun was pointed directly at him. "Ugh?," Johnny said.

"Put the gun on the floor. I don't want to shoot you."

"What?" replied Johnny.

"You know me. Now don't make me shoot you. We've been friends."

After what seemed like an eternity, the shooter slowly bent down and placed his pistol on the floor. Stepping over the dead man between them, Sgt. Bell handcuffed the assailant.

Finally beginning to relax, Sgt. Bell realized that the first man on the floor he passed when entering was no longer lying where he fell. Apparently, the man had not been seriously wounded. Wisely playing possum, he caused the gunman to believe he was dead. Bob's arrival allowed the man the opportunity to leap to his feet and flee the scene.

Efforts to find news accounts of the shooting incident were unsuccessful. Bob Bell said the shooting arose from a disagreement over courting a woman. Bob was certain that he stood face to face with a gunman while holding an unserviceable weapon. "My bluffing worked," he said. Until the end of his life, Bob Bell still felt amazement for pulling off the bluff of his life.

Taft's Early Days

Muskogee County grew its second "All Black Town" in 1904. It was the product of effort of the Midland Valley Railroad to create a shipping point on along the railroad's new tracks. The railroad's Midland Townsite Company purchased three forty-acre sections from an enrolled Creek Freedman named York Jackson.

The company named the town "Taft" after the current Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. Taft became the twenty-seventh President of the United States five years later.

The townsite was just a mile west of the Twine community. Twine was on its way to becoming the urban center for the area. In 1902 the town gained a post office.

The railroad promotion encouraged the migration of new settlers from out of state. As a consequence, Taft exploded in population. The town had over 350 residents by 1910. Residents and merchants quickly abandoned Twine in favor of the upstart community.

Complaints began almost as soon as the post office started operating. Over several years about the time of statehood, postmasters were harassed, and, in one case, fled. Fire of undetermined origins burned the post office to the ground in 1906. Soon thereafter postal conflict abated.

That was not to be the end of trouble in town. Taft residents apparently rioted over the creation of the separate but equal doctrine for railroad travel in the state. Shortly after the passage of this act by Oklahoma's first legislature, the depot burned to the ground.

The Midland Valley Railroad demanded that $1,500 be paid before the depot was rebuilt. Town residents raised the money, but the railroad denied ever receiving it.

The news from Taft became sedate for a few years. Then greed got the better part of several residents. Following a blast that killed Herbert and Cosstella Sells, the perpetrator was found to be the step-father, Zeb Mackey. He was seeking the oil rights owned by the two pre-teen children so he conspired to have the kids murdered.

The goal was to gain control of the money gushing from the ground at Glenn Pool oil field. Three men of the dynamiting party were briefly outwitted by two Muskogee real estate men and a Bartlesville oil man. Their efforts resulted in numerous convictions in 1912.

Despite these early troubles, Taft continued to prosper. First one, and then a second cotton gin, operated in town. A telephone switchboard went into operation about the time electrical lights replaced the kerosene lanterns along the town's streets.

The usual group of enterprising merchants set up shop in town. A cafe, a couple of grocery stores, an automobile garage, a general merchandize store and a drug store opened in Taft. A bank operated from 1906 until the last year before the Great Depression began.

The economic malaise of the Great Depression did not cause the demise of Taft. The town had the good fortune of being the site where the State of Oklahoma located the Industrial Institute for the Deaf, Blind and Orphans of the Colored Race.

Times were changing the forms of employment. Following World War Two, farming equipment reduced the manpower needed in agriculture. The cotton that used to be handpicked was soon plucked by machine.

There is more to Taft's story. The Three Rivers Museum exhibit of the "All Black Towns of Oklahoma" contains some great photographic images. The exhibit will remain open through the end of February.

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.