Sunday, November 12, 2017

"Boom-a-lacka, boom-a-lacka, Bow, wow, wow!"


Early Frederick High School on East Grand Avenue.


1908 Frederick High Program Lists Students

"Boom-a-lacka, boom-a-lacka,
     Bow, wow, wow!"

   Looking through my files recently, I came across several copied pages of a 1908 Frederick High School program from 1908.

   Reproduced print quality of the pages is not great, and I suspect that some pages are missing, but it's a fun read nonetheless.

   In 1908 Frederick High School was a brick building located on East Grand Avenue at the site of the current Frederick Middle School. For many folks in 1908, high school was considered advanced education. Most students during that time considered their education complete on finishing 8th grade. Many students left school even sooner.

   This program from 1908 doesn't identify its event, but it does include a Christmas poem, indicating that it may have been printed during the Christmas season of 1908.

   Notably, the program pages do list the Frederick Public School's administration and faculty members, high school students, and 8th grade students.

   And... thankfully, it includes the class yell! I think you'll agree that the class yell is pretty swell!

   "Boom-a-lacka, boom-a-lacka....."











Sunday, October 22, 2017

Early electric company powered Frederick

 

   Foster-Harris Company sold electricity in 1906


   In 2017 we take electricity for granted.

   We all have electricity in our homes and businesses, and with the flip of a switch we can be assured that there will be light.

   It hasn't always been that simple.

   When the area that is now Tillman County was opened to settlement in 1901, new towns sprang up on the open prairie and the providing of electrical power was an early commercial enterprise. In Frederick, that power was provided by the Foster-Harris Gin and Electric Company. The company built a power plant near the railroad tracks on West Gladstone Avenue where they generated electricity by burning coal. Nearby on North 8th Street (where the Pioneer Townsite Museum is now located) the company also operated an early cotton gin.

   The Foster-Harris company strung electric power lines up and down Frederick streets. Not every building was wired for electricity, but city residents who were prosperous enough to afford electric power could purchase the service.

By the early 1920s, the City of Frederick had taken over electric services from the Foster-Harris enterprise.

   A 1916 industrial edition of the Frederick Daily Leader told the history and service of the Foster-Harris Gin and Electric Company.


Foster-Harris Electric Plant on West Gladstone in Frederick, 1916

From The Frederick Leader county industrial edition, July 21, 1916

A light plant that gives real service

One of the first requisites of a well regulated and progressive city is the maintenance of an adequate lighting system under the management that always takes into consideration how the best possible service can be given the consumers of electric current.

The Foster-Harris Gin and Electric company, of Frederick, is a corporation owned exclusively by J.T. Lively, R.J. Harris and S.J. Mathies, and is under the management of R.J. Harris, who has spent the greater part of his time in the gin and electrical business. Only two members of the firm are located in Frederick, R.J. Harris and S.J. Mathies. Mr. Mathies has charge of the office and book work of the company. He is secretary-treasurer of the company. The uptown offices of the company are maintained in the State Guaranty bank building, in the rear of the Corner drug store. Mr. Lively, the other member of the company and also its president, lives in Seymour, Texas, where he conducts the largest dry goods and department store in that city.

The first lighting system to be started in Frederick was established by this company early in the year 1906. At that time it installed a small, 35 killowatt machine, attached to a 60-horsepower engine direct. This plant was established at the gin, which was built in 1905. Shortly after its establishment, however, it was soon learned that, with the rapid strides the city was making towards progress and upbuilding, it would be but a period of a few years until the plant would be inadequate to handle the current necessary to furnish the patrons light and power. The company has continually been adding to and building until today it has two 150-killowatt machines, with two engines large enough to pull the load. In fact, this plant is one of the best equipped in the state at the present time, being built in duplicate throughout, which almost assures the patrons that they will never be without light and power with a possible exception of a few minutes at a time. The duplicate plants are operated alternately and both are kept in excellent repair by the manager, Mr. Harris, who is noted for his upkeep of the machinery, both of the electric company and the gin.

In addition to the excellent machinery equipment of this company it now has about seven miles of standard copper transmission lines to various parts of the city, and is constantly adding additional lines as the occasion demands. In fact at the present time this company can give its service to any residence in the city.

The number of patrons that this company has in Frederick is in keeping with the excellent service accorded by the company. There is not a business house in the city that has any use for lights at all which is not equipped and using the current of the company. In the principal residence sections of the city the current is used. Of course, as in all cities, there are homes that are not wired for electricity and never will be, but, taken as a whole, the larger percent of the residences in the city are today lighted by electricity.

In addition to furnishing electricity to the residence section this company also furnishes power to three elevators, an ice cream factory, two shoe repair shops, two newspaper offices, one machine shop, a broom factory, repair shop of one gin, besides its own, two meat markets, two bakeries, three picture shows. In fact, any institution that could use electric current to an advantage as a power has motors installed and is using the current of this company.

In addition, the company furnishes power to light the streets of the city. At the present time a system of street lighting is being installed which will call for 35 street lights, which will be of the latest improved Mazda type. This will place adequate street lights in every portion of the city. The rate charged by the company for the lighting of the streets is as low as good business judgment will permit.

The street lighting is always maintained to the highest degree of efficiency.

R.J. Harris, the manager, is responsible in large measure for the good service that is given by this company. He is constantly at the plant looking after the machinery, keeping it in excellent repair in order that it will do its maximum work. He is known by everybody to be an expert in this line. His son, L.G. Harris, is the chief electrician and is credited with being one of the most proficient men in the southwest. He has been with the company about eight years and has given very efficient service during that time. Mr. Harris, Sr., takes great pride in the upkeep of the grounds around the plant and has built small parks near each. It is a pleasure to make a trip to the plant and see the artistic manner in which they are kept up. Mr. Harris devotes his time to the making of an ideal electric and gin plant for Frederick. Mr. Harris and his family came to Frederick from Seymour, Texas, in 1905 and he has been a town booster and builder ever since coming here and starting the first light plant.

S.J. Mathis, secretary-treasurer of the company, came to Frederick in 1907, to take an interest in the company.  He has constantly been in charge of the offices of the company since that date. He is congenial and pleasant to deal with and is imbued with that spirit of progressiveness which is characteristic of the business men of Frederick and Tillman county. He never fails to put forth any available effort to improve the town and contribute liberally towards any enterprise for the upbuilding and growth of the southwest.

The company employs four men through the entire year at the light plant and from 10 to 12 during the cotton season at the gin. They are all efficient in their line and expert workmen.

The gin operated by this company is one of the modern gins of the county. It is equipped with the latest ginning machinery, Pratt Huller gins, and each year additional equipment is added to make it modern. Last year, which was a short season, this gin ginned in excess of 1,400 bales, which is better than the average gin in the southwest. This is also under the management of R.J. Harris, who takes the same care of the machinery as that of the light plant. The company also traffics in cotton, paying the farmers the highest market price and giving them a good class for their product.

While the beginning of the electric service in Frederick was nothing that could be compared with today, there is not now a city in the southwest that can boast of a better lighting system nor a company conducting a system that will do more for the growth and progression of a city than the Foster-Harris Gin and Electric Company.


NOTE: No address is given in the 1916 article. The 1919 city directory, though, lists Harris Gin, 202 N. 8th.



Saturday, September 16, 2017

Original Courthouse Windows Available


The Tillman County Courthouse received new energy-effitcient windows last December.


Historical Society Selling Windows from Courthouse

Pieces of Tillman County history are for sale. The Tillman County Historical Society is selling old windows that were taken from the county courthouse when new windows were installed last December.


New windows at top. Old windows below.
The windows went on sale during the annual Arts 'n' Action Festival on Saturday, September 16. Windows that were not sold that day are still available at the museum during regular business hours, Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

        The historical society began the sale with more than 120 of the old windows, all dating to the building’s 1921 construction.

The oldest windows are distinguished by wavy glass. The wavy effect can be seen by looking at the glass from an angle, and is a result of glass production methods in the 1920s and age. The effects of gravity and time often affect the thickness and clarity of glass. Old, wavy glass is often regarded as a prized feature.


Old windows prior to removal from the courthouse.
Cost of the windows is $25 each for window frames with wavy glass. 

Over the years the glass was replaced in a few courthouse windows. These windows contain regular glass. Cost of each regular glass window is $15.

The September 16 sale began with a limited number of windows with heavy, opaque (non see-through) glass. All of the opaque windows have now been sold.

The old courthouse windows have metal frames. Most measure approximately 33 inches wide by 44 inches tall. A few windows are 40 inches wide. A limited number of windows with other dimensions are also available.


All proceeds from the vintage window sale will be used for operations and maintenance of the historical society’s Pioneer Townsite Museum.

NOTE: See September 11, 2017, post of "Tillman County Chronicles" for historical information about the courthouse construction in 1921.

Monday, September 11, 2017

County Courthouse was Grand Structure in 1921


Tillman County Courthouse in the 1920s

New County Courthouse was

Point of Pride in 1921 

   “Grand. Magnificent. Awe-inspiring.” Those were the impressions of Tillman County folks in 1921 when the county’s new courthouse was completed in Frederick.

   There’s no doubt that the new county courthouse was the most imposing building that had been constructed in the area up to that point.

   Tillman County had been created at Oklahoma Statehood in 1907, but county offices had operated since that time in rented spaces above downtown buildings.

   The new courthouse in Frederick occupied one square block between South Main and South 9th street – Block Six of the original Townsite. The land was purchased at a cost of $14,250. Several homes and businesses, including one of the city’s early mule barns, had existed on the site but were cleared in 1920 for construction of the grand new building.

   Cost to construct the new courthouse was $250,000.

   The four-story building included three levels of spacious county offices, a courtroom and judge’s chambers on the third floor, and a jail on the top level.

   The building featured an exterior of Bedford limestone, shipped at great expense by train from Bedford, Indiana. Interior finishes were in gray granite and marble, designed for beauty and durability.

   The building was designed in Classical Revival style by the architectural firm of Tonini and Bramblet. It featured a kind of foursquare arrangement, with wide hallways that crisscrossed the first floor, open to four entrances – on the south, east, north and west. It was a clean, highly efficient design that focused on efficiency over ornate detail.

   Although the building is similar on all four sides, its “front” was positioned to the south. A wide granite and marble staircase greeted visitors who entered from the south entry, leading to the upper floors. In its earliest days, a skylight above the staircase flooded the area with natural light.

   All parking was at the perimeter of the courthouse square. The building was surrounded on four sides by landscaped grounds and the new courthouse was often the site for “Kodaking” –photo-taking by couples and small groups.

   The architectural firm of Tonini and Bramblet was known for design of public buildings in Oklahoma and Kansas. They designed seven Oklahoma county courthouses, all of which bear some similarities of design to Tillman County’s.

   The courthouse was built by Charles M. Dunning Construction Company of Oklahoma City and Norman. The Dunning Company erected many public buildings throughout the state.

   Construction of the Tillman County Courthouse began in 1920. Concrete work of the building’s superstructure proceeded quickly through that winter, bolstered by mild winter weather conditions.
 
The cornerstone is located near the building's southeast corner.
   A cornerstone was set on the southeast corner of the grand new building in a Masonic ceremony that was held on Monday, February 21, 1921. A large crowd attended in spite of blustery weather. T.O. Davis, the county superintendent of public instruction, had declared a school holiday for students and teachers from all county schools who wished to attend the ceremony.

   The cornerstone itself was blue polished granite that was quarried from near Mountain Park. In keeping with tradition, numerous items were set in a time capsule beneath the cornerstone. These items included newspapers from every newspaper throughout the county.

   Finishing work and furnishing of the courthouse extended through most of 1921. All county offices moved into the grand new building in early December 1921.


   Fabrication and installation of metal cells, however, slowed work on the fourth floor jail, which was completed in mid-January 1922.


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   Following are numerous photos of the Tillman County Courthouse taken throughout its many years of service to citizens of the county.


     Note: These photographs come from numerous sources including Tillman Historical Society Files. Several are used with permission from the website CourthouseHistory.com.