The Washington times., 1921-03-07

| ~
ne remained poor. Enough OF those
| 327 pioneer lawyers remained to make
legal grubbing exceedingly unpront-
| able Hamon took to politics natu-
| rally, IL not necessarily. Under GER
| tain circumstances, II one knows the
game and does not weaken. politics
is profitable. even In the minority
party.
ENTERS POLITICS.
Early In his Lawton life. Hamon
began building up the political FENCES
over which apparently he expected In
time to leap into the White House.
About ten years ago southern Okla
homa awoke suddenly to a gorgeous
sunrise of promise. a huge painting.
30 to speak. Oil had been splashed
here and there upon the canvas. The
result WIS an unexpected destiny for
southern Oklahoma Instead OF con-
tinuing to build up as an agricultural
country. 1t forgot farming largely
and went furiously into prospecting.
oil speculating and ultimately into oil
production Of amaxing richness.
The Healdton oil field, some thirty
miles to the west Of Ardmore. was
the central attraction. Ardmore be-
came the kerosene capital OF aouthern
Oklahoma 1t had been since Its be-
ginning twenty years earlier an In
dian settlement presently well mixed
with palefaces, cotton market,
livestock center. and a rough and
tumble community in the nature OF
things.
Oil transformed Ardmore but oil
did not reform Ardmore. To the con-
trary. oil made Ardmore still more
Of q rough and tumble community.
All sorts and conditions OF men and
women concentrate within new.
kerosene capital. The high collared
consorts with the rough necked.
Crude kerosene collects crude hur
manity along with the more refined.
Kerosene, when the refineries are
built, as they were built at Ardmore.
becomes refined, but the refinement
follow. e.,
Healdton and the other oil produc-
ing settlements were too close to the
oil capital to permit Of much refin-
ing as to the human elements. A new
oil town is just about the toughest
settlement one may find in America
today, and Ardmore. already motor
ious as . gunman community, par
took most considerably Of the tough
est reflected from the neighboring oil
fields.
COMES TO ARDMORE.
1t was into this community that
Jake Hamon came over rom Lawton.
With him came a young girl of about
eighteen, Clara b. Smith, who had
been a bookkeeper in Lawton store
when the future Republican national
committeeman. the future Napoleonic
financier and politician with an ulti-
mate eye upon the White House. first
knew her.
Jake Hamon brought along with
him from Lawton both his potential
fortune and his will to win He did
not bring his family. SO far as have
been able to learn. l am told that
Mrs. Jake Hamon and the two chill
dren never came to live in Ardmore.
In the new and handsome hotel Ard
more, 1 met the other night young
Jake Hamon, nineteen-year-old son of
the slain man, a good-looking, bright
youth, now living here. But he came
since his father received the fatal
bullet and Mrs. Hamon and the
daughter have returned to their home
in Chicago. where they have lived vir-
family came to Ardmore.
LIVED VERY MODEsTLY.
Jake Hamon built railroads in Okla
homa and in Texas, but he never built
a home in Ardmore- For more than
eight years he occupied a modest
room at the front of the second floor
of a second-class hotel. the Randol.
In that room, according to the States
allegation, he was shot by Clara
Smith, the girl he brought over from
Lswton, on the evening OF Sunday,
November 81, last: and hardly two
blocks away Is the Hardy Sanitarium.
whittier he walked after the shoot
ing. He died on the morning Of No
vember 28.
Just back of lannon's room in the
hotel, with a connecting door between,
is the room that was occupied "off
and on" for about eight years by
Clara Smith There Is a little bath
room with doors opening from each
bed chamber.
Across Main street from the Randol
Hotel. in the Vonweise building, are
the offices where Hamon conducted
his various oil enterprises. Still ap-
pears at the sreet entrance the sign
Jake l. Hamon.- with the names of
uNe OIL CoHtNtUr NhS huiuotTS Oh
I'VE office rooms upstairs
Just to tho rear OF the RandoI
Hotel, facing the next street is Con-
vention Hall. where the body. Of the
Waterlooed NAPOLEON lay In state. I'm
mediately across that street is the
First Presbyterian Church, where the
funeral was conducted by a minister
from Lawton, assisted by the local
pastor.
Thus, within the space OF three or
dinary city blocks, were enacted the
several closing scenes of n tragedy
unique In American annals. A part
of the beginning and a part OF the
ending were brought from Lawton.
For some eight years the intermedl-
ate scenes were staged on the two
slides OF Main street--in the hotel and
In the oil headquarters.
Swiftly the doom followed the
dream.
(To Be Continued Tomorrow In The
Warrington Times9