Northwest Oklahoma Genealogical Society - Key Finder
Spring 1997
Vol. 18 No. 2
Editors note: These newspaper clippings came from an old scrap book, that was going to be destroyed.
Site Of First Homestead Stake Will Be Marked 1943
WOODWARD. Okla., Dec. 25 (Special--The ground was so hard because of a prolonged drouth that Eli Cox drove his homestead stake down a prairie dog hole In the Moscow flats area, east of this city, when he completed the run on horseback for a home with the opening of the Cherokee Strip to settlement on September 16, 1893. It happened also that this was the first homestead stake to be driven anywhere in that community and to commemorate that fact, and also to pay honor to the stake-driver, a monument is to be erected there immediately by Wayne Cox, his son. Eli Cox is still living on the original claim and is the only homesteader still to own the claim, on which he filed.
An appropriate chunk of granite has been obtained by R. C. Van Norstrand of Woodward from quarries near Granite to be used as the monument. Two figures, together with the date, will be engraved thereon. One figure shows the start of the run with Cox on horseback the second Cox driving the stake. Last September 16 was the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Cherokee Strip to homesteading and the decision to erect the monument was made in connection with this event.
Eli Cox is now 73 years old. wife passed away in 1940. Four other men made the run with him but none of them remain--James H. Cox, Joseph H. Cox, Robert Norvel and John Rhynard. It required an hour and twelve minutes
for Cox to make the run from the southern border of the Strip to the location he had selected in advance in Moscow flats. The pony he had intended to ride departed during the night time and he was forced to mount a rather clumsy animal that fell with him twice within two miles of his goal.
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Five Cimarron County
Men War Casualties OK 1943
WOODWARD. Dec. 29.-Special) Information has been received by Mr. and Mrs. John Anderson of Laverne that their nephew, S 2c William O. Starnes, USNR, is missing in action following a ship collision at sea. He had made his home at Laverne with the Andersons and graduated from high school there with the 1939 class
Two Cimarron county service men have been revealed missing in action; Lieut. Earl McDaniel and Lieut. Arthur W. Lignoul. The former is the son of Mr. and Mrs. O. H. McDaniel of Kerrick and is reported missing since December 11 in action in the north Atlantic. Lieut. Lignoul is reported missing in the north African theater since November 27. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Lignoul.
Cpl. Wilmer Dotter died in Italy November 17, according to word received at Freedom by his father, Arthur Dotter. He was with the 45th Division. A letter received by his father, written November 8, stated he was seeing action on the Italian front.
Mrs. Henry Busch of Canton has received confirmation of the death of her son, Sgt. William B. Leis. He was an aerial gunner and met death when his plane crashed over French Morocco. He enlisted in the army in November, 1942, when he was 19 years old. A brother, Sgt. Emanuel Leis also is serving overseas.
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Pioneer Beaver County
Teacher Is Dead at 72 OK 1944
WOODWARD. Dec. 31-(Special) -Mrs. Roy P. Brown, 72, one of the first school teachers in No Man's Land, died this week in county. She was the sister of Maude Thomas, Beaver newspaper woman for many years and member of the state highway commission under Gov. Murray.
Mrs. Brown was a native of Mo. Her parents homesteaded in old Beaver county in 1887. The young woman rode 40 miles on horse back across open prairie, with only small pistol as protection, to make application for her first school. She then taught in a one-room sod school house for $30 a month, doing her own janitor work and walking a mile
or more to get to her job.
In 1904 she married Roy P. Brown, who survives. Other survivors include a brother, William H. Thomas of Beaver, and three sisters, Miss Maude Thomas and Mrs. Fred C. Tracy of Beaver and Mrs. D. J. of Greenridge.
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Thursday, July 29, 1943
H. H. Pittman to Wed Oklahoma Girl
An Army romance, that had its beginning soon after the Fifty Ninth Service Group located in Woodward last April, will have its culmination on August 1 when Lt. Heber H. Pittman, the Group's chaplain, will marry Miss Doris Burns, prominent Woodward young lady. The ceremony will be performed at the First Christian church, with Rev. Ardra Walker officiating.
Lt. Pittman, a minister of the Christian church, resigned a pastorate at McLeansboro, Illinois, prior to entering the Army service and the chaplaincy in Woodward was his first assignment after completing the required training at Harvard. The Group, with which he is associated, is stationed at Boiling Springs State Park base, principally in camouflage training.
Miss Burns is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Burns of Woodward, a very attractive and highly accomplished young lady. She completed her high school course and was graduated from a Dallas, Texas, school.
Miss Burns attendant at the wedding will be her sister-in-law, Mrs. Harold F. Burns, while Rev. Ball, pastor of the Okeene Christian church, will be best man. He was a classmate of Chaplain Pittman at the Johnson Bible Institute in Tennessee. Several of the chaplain's companion officers of the Fifty-ninth Service Group will be present. Following the ceremony the newlyweds will leave on a ten-day honeymoon trip for a visit with his parents in Northern Michigan.
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