Lee Highway was Transcontinental Route

Column sent to Frederick Leader and Frederick Press

May 19, 2009

Frederick publication from 1920s celebrated position on Lee National Highway.

Lee Highway Passed Through Frederick in the ‘20s

Before there was a Route 66 or I-40, there was the Lee National Highway. It was established in the early 1920s as one of only a few cross-continental highways, and it passed directly through Frederick and Tillman County.

Prior to the 1920s, almost all long-range transportation and hauling of freight was by train. As motor vehicles became common, though, there was a growing desire to travel by car and to haul merchandise by truck. At that time there was no organized, systematic highway system to travel from state to state. All roads were dirt or gravel and there were no standards for building or maintaining them.

The Lee National Highway was organized in the early 1920s as a primary cross-country route that extended from Washington, D.C., through the South, South Central states (including Oklahoma), and the American Southwest, finally arriving at the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California, before moving up the California coast to end in San Francisco.

The Highway was named as a memorial for General Robert E. Lee.

The other most important cross-country route from New York City to San Francisco was the Lincoln National Highway which crossed through northern states. It had been established just a few years previous to the Lee Highway.

Official maps of the Lee Highway show two versions as it crossed through Tillman County.

The direct highway route passed through Walters then into Frederick from the east along the route of the current Highway 5. The Lee Highway turned southward at Frederick, passing through Davidson before moving into Texas over a brand new Red River Bridge, then on to Vernon. A map of the national highway was printed in a Frederick publication in November 1924 with the headlines “Frederick, Oklahoma, ‘On the Main Street of the Nation’, “Lee Highway Bridge at Davidson is only Free Bridge Across Red River.”

Lee Highway and wooden Red River Bridge, 1920s.

An auxiliary version of the national highway contained a loop that curved northward from the Walters area, through Lawton, then southwest to join the direct highway route through Frederick.

Why was there a sudden need for national cross-country highways in the 1920s?

A few visionary men of the time realized that automobiles would grow in importance and would replace trains as the principle means of long-distance transportation and freight hauling. At that time, the federal government was not involved in road building at all, and some states did not even have highway departments.

During World War I, established roads in Europe helped with transport of military vehicles, and after the war, many American leaders began to realize the importance of being able to quickly move military vehicles and produce across the country on roadways in times of emergency.

The Lee National Highway was established in the early 1920s as one of the main cross-country thoroughfares.

Its start was in Washington, D.C. at the Potomac River, directly in front of the Robert E. Lee family mansion that is located on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. In 1926, work began on the Arlington Memorial Bridge over the Potomac to officially mark the beginning of America’s Highway.

During coming decades, other national cross-country highways would be established, such as Route 66 from Chicago to California, and development of the interstate highway system in the 1950s.

During the 1920s, though, one the primary routes across America passed directly though Frederick and Tillman County.

Card Commemorated Lee National Highway.

Joe Wynn is a member of the Tillman County Historical Society’s board of directors. He can be contacted by e-mail at jawynn@cableone.net.

Early Photos

Column sent to Frederick Leader and Frederick Press

October 1, 2009

Ligon House, 1905

The Robert Leonard Ligon home was located at 123 North 12^th Street in Frederick. Pictured in 1905 are Mr. Ligon, Alice Waggoner Ligon, Anne Ligon (later Mrs. H.T. Harrison), and Ernest Mayfield Ligon. Many years later, the property was purchased by A.S. Minter who moved his farm home to the location. The original Ligon home was kept on the property, but turned 180 degrees to face the alley. Its new address was 212 E. Floral. In 2010 the property was purchased by Frederick's First Baptist Church and both the Ligon house and the Minter house were torn down.

Grand Avenue

This is a postcard photo, dated 1914, that shows a colorized, enhanced version of the 200 block of West Grand Avenue. The First National Bank (now BancFirst) was located at 200 West Grand in the building that is now City of Frederick offices. The Wide-a-Wake Variety Store was located at that time in a building where the city’s drive-through is now located. The building’s exterior received a major update in the 1950s, giving it a completely different look from its original. Colorized, enhanced postcards like this one were very popular in the decade after 1910. This postcard was printed and sold by the Wide-a-Wake.

Simpson Brothers Livery

This old photo was labeled on back, “Livery Stable, across from (current) Post Office.” The photo is undated, but would have been very early. In a 1919 Frederick directory, this address was listed as maintenance and warehouse for the Ozier Automobile Company.

Davidson Threshing Machine 1921

This unnamed wheat threshing crew worked near Davidson in 1921.

Red River Bridge 1920s (two photos, above and below)

These two photos show the first roadway bridge that crossed the Red River south of Davidson. The wooden bridge was built sometime after 1916 and was damaged or washed out several times before being replaced in the 1930s by a concrete bridge. The bridge crossing was part of the coast-to-coast Lee National Highway in the 1920s. These photos were taken by Clifton Fine Photographer, Vernon.

Photos Capture Life in Early Tillman County

 

Photos of early Tillman County are fascinating because many of them picture a different way of life. Many of the old photos show familiar landmarks, but with unfamiliar surroundings.

The fascinating pictures with this week’s column, for instance, show numerous pieces of the area’s past.

The Tillman County Historical Society is always looking for old photos that show life in the area “the way it was.”

If you have historic photos that we can scan for archive at the museum, bring your old photos by the Pioneer Townsite any weekday between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and leave them with Frances Goodknight. Make sure that your name and contact information is with the photos, and when they have been scanned we will get them back to you or call you to pick them up.

Of course, we will also accept photos for donation.

We will not scan regular family photos or snapshots, but we do have an interest in scanning historic photos that capture pieces of the area’s history. That could include sites or buildings, events, farm scenes, school activities, church or club activities, etc.

Or, if you have already scanned digital copies of historic photos, we would like to have copies. Load your digital copies of historic photos onto a CD and leave them at the Townsite.

I often scan old photos for historical society archives, and the most frustrating thing about that process is finding great photos that are not labeled. Too often there is no way to know the location of great old buildings, the context of historic scenes, or the names of people in pictures.

My advice to everyone is to write photo descriptions, dates, and names of individuals on the back of photos using a good, non-smearing pen (such as a fine-point Sharpie) or pencil. It’s an important project. Do not put off doing it.

With the wide availability of scanners, many people are scanning their own pictures and it is a great way to preserve and distribute them to family and friends. Too often, though, the pictures are scanned without context.

For that reason, I keep a photo key and I suggest that others do that, too. I assign a number in the name of every photo along with a one- or two-word name. I then keep a written key in a separate computer text file (or it could be on written paper form) that corresponds with the photo number and name, and which contains all of my notes about the photo, including anything that was written on back of the original. It’s an easy way to maintain context for the scanned photos.

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Joe Wynn is a member of the Tillman County Historical Society Board. He can be contacted by e-mail at jawynn@cableone.net.