The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-09-25

The celebration STAGED in Chick
asha to commemorate the landing Of
the first federal court this town ever
saw, came very near resulting in the
loss of leg for mighty good man
and | happened to be that nan.
1t was a way back in CleVelands
administration. c. NJ. Fecheimer, de-
ceased. d. b. Sayer, now resident.
of California; J. A. Bohart. founder
of the Bank OF Chickasha, whlch
was later the-rhieasaw Trust Com
pany. and still later the Oklahoma
National Bank, and other prominent
citizens OF that day were instrunen-
tai in getting Chickasha designated
as a court town. Judge Beavers WAS
the first commissioners and j. w.
Speake was federal district clerk.
They came after the celebration in.
question, was staged Of course be-
cause we got busy hot off the bat
Still later, company of men organ-
lied and had the building constructed
that is now the county court house.
1t was the federal building thea ana
we were all mighty proud of it.
But to get back to the celebration
| don't remember who was captain
or chief ramrod of the affair; but
anyhow it was decided to form n
company OF soldiers and on the ap'
pointed night to drill in company
and squad formation. There were ~
in the company We drilled siren
uonsly for the practice time was
short. There was not a chance TO
get army guns of course and in or
der to have the weapons uniform,
we appealed to the two hardware
stores here then. These were owned
by j. A. Rose and Gene Camuse.
Both agreed to let us have Win
chester shot guns. These guns were
just coming into use here and were
very popular
don't recall all those who We're
members of the company. However,
some of them We're: c. L. Campbell
founder of the Citizens National
Bank, deputy u S marshal and
owner of the Henderson addition,
later put on here; c.. M. Hollings
worth. w. w. Horn, Charles Rose,
A. B. Snow. now deceased, r. E.
Riddle. ]. B. Monacle. the first may
or chickasha ever nad Dr. d. M.
Johnson. II. e. Martin, Ed Turner,
Howard Miller, Mart Louthan and
lot of "the boys" can't recall.
now. f
Everything was fine and dandy
the night OF the celebration We had
rounded UP every oil lime and mo.
lasses barrel in this part of the
country and had them in big pile
over on what is now Kansas ave,
nue.. between Third and Fourth
streets. There was plenty Of space
in those days In fact, space isanbolit
all we had around thls-5bu that
was then rag town" Well, this
pile OF barrels mounted. Everybody
knocked off work and tried to round
up all the barrels in this part of the
Indian Territory, When the torch
was applied, that pile of barrels was
as big as an ordinary four room
house.
Every man, woman child and dog
turned out to the big show This
crack company with the borrowed
Winchester repeating shot guns lined =
up at command and while the big
fire rolled higher and higher, and
The enthusiasm OF the crowd mount
cd with the flames, We marched back
and forth, deployed. did squads
right and about every so often the
captain would yel. Ready, aim,
fire" and we would turn loose
those old shotg,ms with an accom-
panying noise that must have been
heard up around the Kansas line I
These g,inh undHrstand. were ncw
to us. We had bcca aecustomed 70
the old hammer, doub!e-barrel type
and we couldn't always tell whether
we had load in the chamber or not
As to uniform-we didn't have any
In those days the men wore trousers
that nared out at the bottoms. The