Memorial Day Weekend V - Rock Spring Baptist Church

We are going to skip over Eakly Cemetery in the day's chronicles.  I have covered it before and probably will again!
On the way to Eakly I spotted a historical marker on the east side of the road and made a point to catch it on the way back towards Anadarko.  It is up off the road on a hill and partially obscured by grass and other growth.

The marker reads:

ROCK SPRING BAPTIST CHURCH

1/4 Mile East

First Baptist Church

Among Oklahoma Plains Indians

ORGANIZED 1874 BY REV. JOHN McINTOSH.

CREEK INDIAN.  FIRST KNOWN BAPTIST

MISSIONARY TO THESE TRIBES.

First Trip summer 1874 under auspices of

CREEK BAPTIST ASSN.

Sermon text John 3:16.  Black Beaver. Interpreter

"This is the Word from the Great Spirit Above

to all His children" -- McIntosh

Naturally we went on down the road trying to locate any remnants of said church.  We couldn't find a darn thing visible from the road that looked like it was or used to be a church, but we did see a cemetery on the south side of the road and decided that probably used to go with the church.  I should have gotten pictures!  When I got home I did some research on Find A Grave and sure enough there is a Rock Springs Cemetery outside of Gracemont.  Pretty sure it is the one we passed.  I will just have to hit it up another time!


The funny thing is that I have read a few things online that suggest that there is still a Rock Springs Baptist Church (yes, Rock Springs, not Rock Spring as on the marker, but it appears to be the same).  I will have to research that more I suppose.

Memorial Day Weekend IV - Riverside School

After leaving Memory Lane Cemetery and having our traditional pit stop in Anadarko, we head out of town on some highway or other.  I would look it up, but what's the point?  I always forget!  Getting to Eakly is just one of those things that I have known how to do my whole life.  I don't know the darn names of the highways!  :-)


So we head out of town.  Before we get very far, a historical marker appears on the right.  It is in sad shape, but still plenty readable:

The marker says:
Riverside School
Begun by U.S. Quaker Agents, 1871


This school opened at the Indian agency on Sugar Creek with 8 pupils.  A new building was erected as a boarding school in 1872, for Wichita and Caddo children.  Fire in 1878 destroyed the school.  It soon reopened in a new building here on the Washita and continues as the oldest boarding school in the United states Indian service.
Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1970


I am aware that the Riverside Indian School is still around but I had forgotten that it was a boarding school.  That is something you think of more in Europe and Yankee territory!  :-)  And beyond that, there are about 800 students there?!  I had no idea it was that large!!  Peruse the school website some.  There are some interesting things there, the most interesting of which may just be where Anadarko got its name.  Apparently it is derived from an old Caddo word meaning 'a place of the bumblebees.'

Memorial Day Weekend III - Memory Lane Cemetery

Next stop?  
Anadarko.
Memory Lane Cemetery.

I have included this stop on the list since Junior Menefee passed away.  Junior and Winona are my ex-husband's paternal grandparents.  Theirs are the only graves in the cemetery that I mess with, although I will usually say 'hi' to Delphia (Winona's mother) since I used to have her ironing board.  But that is a whole other story.  

Memory Lane really is a nice cemetery.  And it is HUGE!  The Menefees are off to the east side not far from the north entrance, so usually it is a quick in and out for us.  This time we drove around a little bit which is not an easy feat given the cemetery's teeny-tiny narrow lanes!  I thought I spied a veteran's memorial or something of the sort but when we got closer it turned out to be just a section more saturated than others with veterans markers.  Nothing more.  Once there I was able to get a pretty decent picture from the top of a hill that somewhat gives an idea of how broad and sweeping this cemetery is.

I have little personal history with Anadarko itself and am rarely there anymore, so I don't have much in the way of personal tidbits to share.  However, there is a synopsis of the history of the Memory Lane Cemetery on Anadarko's city website that is worth checking out.

Memorial Day Weekend II - Ninnekah History in Rose Hill Cemetery

As explained in the last post, we added Rose Hill Cemetery as a stop for our Memorial Day Weekend traditional trek.  Our destination?  The graves of Fred & Christel Kluver.  Our mission?  To put flowers on the graves for Memorial Day.  The result?  Well, we did the flowers (though not the ones I wanted - waited too late to buy this year) and we will continue to visit their graves on Memorial Day Weekend.  However, what happened as we were fulfilling our task served to change the atmosphere of the whole day and to throw Betsy into full-scale geeky history-loving mode that poor Rick had to deal with the rest of the day. (Yeah, and beyond that day.  Possibly forever!  :-) )

You see, as I was getting pictures I spotted something very close to Mrs. Kluver's grave out of the corner of my eye.  It was the name BEELER.  I had to look.  I made my way over and RIGHT THERE THEY WERE!!!  The graves of George & Georgia Beeler!!!!!


Rick was immediately thrown into the midst of a Ninnekah history lesson.  I told him just about everything I could remember about the Beelers.  I shall now regale you with the high points:

• George Beeler founded Ninnekah!!  
• Georgia was the first postmaster and she picked out the name which means 'Dark Waters' in Choctaw.  
• He turned down the roundhouse that the railroad wanted to put in, causing them to go to Chickasha and in turn for Chickasha to practically overnight become more important than Ninnekah.  
• They had a large residence of which there is a replica in the Ninnekah Historical Museum.

What particularly blows my mind is there they lay in eternal rest with very simple markers and a simple family marker that just says 'Beeler.'  No mention of them founding Ninnekah?  No mention that he is considered the first resident of Chickasha (more details on that tidbit I looked up later)?  It seems there should be something marking the grave!

The reason I know anything about the Beelers at all is because of Mrs. Craig.  She was my art teacher in 7th & 8th grade and my civics teacher in 8th grade.  She and the 8th grade class of 1990 started Heritage Day in Ninnekah and helped put in motion all kinds of things to preserve Ninnekah's history.  In 1992 Mrs. Craig complied a book of sorts of various pieces of Ninnekah history including brief biographies of prominent individuals, interviews with descendants, cemetery records, and more.  At the end of my 8th grade year (1994) the last assignment of the year was to read through this 'book,' and write a summary of it.  I LOVED IT!!!  I am looking at my report right now, which ends with 'I found this book very interesting, and wish I could get a copy!'  First off, I don't know what purpose that comma is supposed to serve and secondly, it doesn't seem to be an appropriate conclusion for a summary of a book.  Nevertheless it got me a copy!  Mummy took me out of school a bit early the last day of school (the same day we turned the reports in) to go visit Aunt Debbie who had just moved to Oklahoma City.  On our way out of the building Mrs. Craig stopped us and gave me one of the books.  I was far too shy back then to tell her how I appreciated that, but I can tell you without a doubt that I WAS ECSTATIC!  That is evidenced by the fact that I am looking at that book right now if nothing else.


Want to know more about Ninnekah?  Sadly, this article is about the best you will find online.  But don't worry.  We will talk more about Ninnekah and the Beelers later!!

Memorial Day Weekend I - The Kardokus / Gee Way

THE OLD RITUALS

Memorial Day Weekend.  A time of cookouts, lake trips, food and fun for many.  For my family and me in particular, it means fake flowers and the dusty wind that just seems to always come with cemeteries in Oklahoma.
From the time I was just a little thing we would make the trek out to Eakly (where Mummy is from) to decorate Grandpa Don, Grandma Florence and Zelda Faye's graves.  We only occasionally make the longer journey to Enid for Grandpa Russ's grave.


I remember a lot of those trips to the Eakly Cemetery from my childhood.  Before Aunt Thelma passed away we would go to her house with the horseshoe drive afterward.  It had been Grandma Florence's house and behind it used to stand the house that Mummy and her uncle Johnny were both born in - among many other peeps I am sure.  I still can find it when I drive into Eakly (which is rare - usually we just hit the cemetery and head back towards Binger) but it is no longer in the family.


These Memorial Day visits and Mummy's feelings about cemeteries helped me to grow up with a fondness for them.  Mummy always loved cemeteries and dreamed of buying and living in an old rural church with a cemetery.  She wanted to spend her free time tending to the cemetery.  I think I would like to be a cemetery sexton in retirement or something (assuming, of course, that I START a career to retire from!).


I am not sure when I went on the cemetery run by myself for the first time - and by myself I most likely mean with the ex-husband.  I would guess maybe 14 years ago or so.  As time went on, more graves were added.  Chris's grandparents in Anadarko (handily on the way to Eakly), and in Eakly, Mummy, Cousin Rattlesnake Leroy and Grandma.  There is a ritual to it, as there is to just about anything I do, which involves certain colors of flowers for each person and the order of the stops and what convenience stores to stop at among other things.  Memory Lane Cemetery in Anadarko is first, followed by Eakly Cemetery.  Then home.  If a trek to Enid is planned, it is most likely a different day.  Also I greatly prefer to go just prior to the weekend or very early in the weekend; you don't want peeps to be at the cemetery thinking the family has been forgotten!


But the most important part:  the flower colors.  I have only set the colors for the more recent graves - very carefully, of course.  The older graves get the same colors that Mummy had put on them for many years before I ever started going with her or was on this planet for that matter.  Those colors were also carefully chosen; substitutions are done in extreme emergency situations ONLY.

A NEW TRADITION

Several months ago Rick and I were walking in Rose Hill Cemetery - the premier walking trail in Chickasha - when we spotted Mrs. Kluver's headstone.  It was right near the gate and easy to get to so it took us all of a couple of minutes to decide that we would add Rose Hill Cemetery and Mrs. Kluver to our Memorial Day Weekend treks.
You see, while we only met Mrs. Kluver on a few occasions she is very important to us.  We bought her house!  There is even still a 'K' on the front screen door.  :-)  She was just the sweetest little old lady!  I know she would be disappointed that I didn't keep her garden spots up and that we have taken out most of the shrubs and stuff AND that the house is in such desperate need of remodel.  Nevertheless, I think she would be happy with us being there because we LOVE the house!!!  This is what it looked like shortly after she and Fred bought the house in 1945:

The house was 20 years old at the time.  She lived there for 60 years (he passed away in 1996) and they raised four children there.  They built on to the back around 1960 - probably mostly to give Mrs. Kluver a larger kitchen!  :-)  We still have the coppertone stuff that was put in at that time.  The back porch was added on to in the 90s - or so I estimate from various pictures.  Those windows you see?  Pretty sure they are the same ones we have now except for the one on side of the house on the far right.  Isn't it just fabulous to have a house with so much history and love behind it?  I think so!  I could go on and on about this topic, but I will wrap it up with a picture of the house now for comparison.  This is a photo of a pencil drawing Michelle did of the house (using Google Maps!) as a Christmas present:

CONCLUSION

Now that you know a little bit about the Memorial Day Weekend rituals and new addition to this year, let's get started on chronicling Saturday, May 26, 2012, shall we?

Oklahoma Heritage Plaza

Friday, May 25, 2012.
I get off work decently early.  Becky and I hatched a plan the night before to meet up in Norman and high-tail it to Oklahoma City to the State Fair Park for the EGI Gem, Jewelry & Bead Show.
  
The show ends at 6:00 p.m. per the e-mail Rabicca had received.  We swing into the fairgrounds going on 5:15 p.m. and it looks pretty desolate.  No signs bespeaking a bead show.  I'm creeping along the grounds in the car.  I can't help it.  I am not used to going to the fairgrounds except during the Great State Fair of Oklahoma (Yes, I called it by its full name.  Doesn't it sound grand that way?  :-) ) and during the fair you are ushered unceremoniously to a 'parking spot' some ways off that you pay a fortune for.  Never have I personally driven inside the fairgrounds.  Eventually we come across a building with a couple of cars outside.  Skeptical that we have reached our destination but wanting to get information from someone in the know prior to giving up after working so hard to get there, we disembark the vehicle and peek inside.  There are just a few people setting up booths on the far side of the building.  Deciding to go ahead and go in there like a couple of lost tourists, we spot a woman walking around the corner.  She informs us that they are setting up for the gun show and nothing else is currently shaking at the fairgrounds.


Discouraged but not quite ready to give up we get back in the car and continue driving around some - still feeling like someone is going to jump out at us any minute telling us we aren't allowed to drive there!  Then around a corner there are cars!  We get closer and there is a sign!  The only sign - right outside the building it is in.  Somebody did a poor job of promoting the show.  Nevertheless, we are here!  In we run and frantically spend too much money on beads until it is time to leave so they can close up.


The point of this post, however, is not the bead show.  It is what we saw when we left.  We were walking to the car and plotting just where we were going to go to use some facilities when to the left I spotted large granite monuments.  It was the 'Oklahoma Heritage Plaza.'  The monuments list everyone inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and even include etched portraits of a select few.  Becky was not terribly amused with the detour given that she also had a need for certain facilities, but I assured her I wasn't going to take a picture of each monument - there are too many.  We quickly walked the path trying to find the most interesting ones.

This is the main stone telling about the plaza.  Not surprisingly, the two inductees on it are Will Rogers and Jim Thorpe.  It is interesting that both of them died 3 years after being inducted.  Hhmmm... could this be Oklahoma's version of the Madden Curse?  Well, probably not.  There are plenty of peeps that are still alive and well that have been inducted.  :-)


The actual Oklahoma Hall of Fame Gallery is housed at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum along with MANY other things.  Definitely looks like a worthwhile destination.  In the meantime, one can find out some interesting things about the Oklahoma Hall of Fame on their website.  


First off, there are 6 inductees that are listed from Chickasha.  I got pictures of monuments that include 2 from Chickasha including Anna Lewis who was inducted in 1940.

The most rockin'ly awesome thing about that?!  That I didn't even realize until I started on this post today?!  I published the post about Fred earlier and there was a link to an article a professor at OCW had written in 1934.  Yep, you guessed it.  SAME WOMAN!!  How cool is that?!  :-)  I am going to have to find out more about her.  She might warrant a whole post for herself!

Here is a monument that includes Te Ata, after whom the Te Ata Memorial Auditorium at USAO where she attended school (when it was OCW) is named.  The same auditorium my graduation was in!  :-)
Another interesting fact I encountered while looking at the Hall of Fame info online:  The Oklahoma Heritage Association's bylaws were not changed until 2000 to allow people to be inducted posthumously!!  Isn't that weird?  And since the change, only 4 have been inducted posthumously!  One of the four was Wiley Post.  Now THERE was an interesting character AND he had ties to Chickasha.  It is hard to believe he was not previously inducted.


I leave you today with this slightly amusing picture.  Doesn't it look from that angle like the tram is quite precariously perched?  :-)

Fred, Indian Territory

Fred.  What an original name for a town!  They broke the mold on that one.


I have known Fred existed for some time, of course, having been raised in Ninnekah.  Old Fred Road is right off of Old Hwy 81 and leads to the Muncrief Cemetery (which I desperately need to visit for OST).  I also have known of the historical marker for Fred, Indian Territory, for many years as it is near the abode of my best friend.  I had just never been there.  I know, I know.  But I am sure there are people in Philadelphia who have never been to the Betsy Ross House.  Just think about that for a minute.


The date:  May 15, 2012
My Adventure Partner:  The Un-Adventurous Shawna Dawn
Our Objective:  Get Our Fred On


This wearisome trek through the outskirts of town took a lot of effort.  I actually had to stop the car, get out, and snap a few pics.  :-)  But seriously.  The time had come for me to Get My Fred On.  And Shawna Dawn?  She got her I'm-Staying-In-The-Car-With-The-AC-And-My-Phone-And-Don't-Care-About-Fred On.  Fuddy. Duddy.

Sad, isn't it?  I am finding more and more that historical markers and cemeteries and all the awesomeness that I have set out to chronicle are being worn down by apathy.  So many are faded, beaten, and as in the case of Fred, untended.


I assume that you could get in through the gate if you were so inclined and the weather was cold enough to not have to worry about snakes in the overgrown craziness!  I REALLY want to know what those displayed documents are!  No doubt I will return to Fred when I have time to peruse and at a less convenient time for the serpentine residents of the area.


But what is Fred, you ask?  Prior to working on this post I knew essentially two things about it:  it used to be a town in Oklahoma in part of what is now Ninnekah, and it is the reason behind the name of Old Fred Road.  That is about all I KNEW.  Now.  Let's get educated.


First off check out this awesomeness:

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v012/v012p447.html

Pretty cool, huh?  I am not really sure just when this map was supposed to be from but it almost certainly was drawn ex post facto as Chickasha was in Indian Territory, not Oklahoma Territory, so prior to statehood there would be no reason for it to be listed next to something saying 'Oklahoma.'  The map is not of post-statehood or Ninnekah should be included.  Or maybe that is just my Ninnekah-centricity speaking.  Ninnekah and Chickasha were both established in 1892 and Ninnekah was initially the largest.  You would think if Chickasha is listed and Ninnekah isn't then Old Fred wouldn't be listed either since with the establishment of Ninnekah and Chickasha it declined in importance.  [For example, one piece of information I have come across says that the Fred Post Office was discontinued in 1894 with the mail for that area being integrated into Chickasha.  Interesting factoid:  That area which is mostly technically in Ninnekah still has Chickasha mail service!]  Of course you have to take into consideration that it is listed as 'Old Fred' rather than 'Fred' indicating it is already a thing of the past.

That was a very convoluted stream of consciousness, but if you follow me you see the bottom line is I don't know what timeframe the map was drawn in or is supposed to represent and I don't like that it left Ninnekah out!  :-)

Back to Fred.  This marker gives us the basics.  We see that Fred was a trading post established by Colonel Frank Fred in the 1870s at the crossroads of the Chisolm Trail and Fort Cobb Stage Road.  What the Ft. Cobb Stage Road is should be self-explanatory though I would like to see if there are other markers regarding that, and if you are not blessed enough to be an Okie and need more information on what on earth the Chisolm Trail is, look here.  No doubt that topic will come up again here at OST.

A lovely article published in The Chronicles of Oklahoma in December of 1934 gives us some insight about Fred.  It was written by a professor at the Oklahoma College For Women.  Oh, I'm sorry.  You could sense the overabundance of excitement oozing from that last sentence, couldn't you?  I will contain myself.  We shall cover OCW at length another time.

So the article.  The best part about it?  This statement:  

One of the old buildings still stands; the grave yard not far away and traces of the old stage coach stand are all silent reminders of the past.  

Fred was ESTABLISHED in the 1870s - this was WRITTEN in 1934!!  Half again as many years have passed since that article was written!!  Love it.  I also enjoy where she calls State Highway 19 (or whatever was in its place at the time) the "Alex, Lindsay, Pauls Valley Road."  :-)  I will have to look into just how long Highway 19 has been Highway 19.

What I would like to know and intend to try to find out when I do visit Muncrief Cemetery (anyone want to be my adventure partner?  :-) ) is if that pile of rock and stone over the hill from the cemetery that was the stage stand is still there.  Wouldn't that be something?!  It might even be worth traipsing through snake infested weeds to get to!

Another tidbit of note is that the reason Fred is where it is (aside from the crossroads aspect) is because there is a section of the Washita River that has a rock bottom and that is where they would move the cattle through on the Chisolm Trail.  Who knew?  Not that it is surprising.  Just as the Egyptians' lives were built around the Nile so it is with we Grady Countians and the Washita - and in the case of those fortunate enough to hail from Ninnekah, the Little Washita.  Yes, we will have to go more in depth on both rivers soon!!  :-)

I have found a couple more sources regarding Fred, but we will wait for another installment after I have more information on those darn documents and what-not.  We have the basics down.  Next time we dig in.