The Legend of A. G. "Guy" Wheeler
written by Otto Goins

Guy Wheeler, a legend around Okfuskee, came from Indiana via El Reno, Oklahoma in 1886 with the Wheeler family.  Following his brother, Park Wheeler who settled on a tract of land four miles east  and two miles north of Okfuskee.  His parents, W.N. and Ann Wheeler settled one mile south and one mile west of Okfuskee.  Guy, not cut out to be a farmer or a rancher saw an opportunity to open a business at Okfuskee.  In 1901, he move a store-front building from “Old Okfuskee” located one mile west and three-fourths mile north of Okfuskee.  There had been a post office and bank located there for some years before.  The sandstone foundations still exist to this day.  At Okfuskee,  Guy opened  a drug store selling patent medicines, lotions, liniments, cosmetics, etc. 

In the front of the store he had a soda fountain, a marble top counter and a very large mirror.  At times he had ice-cream and ice that he kept in a ice house, a little building outside where he covered a 300 pound block of ice with saw dust.  He also sold candy, chewing gum, cigars and pop.

In the back of the store he had living quarters and also the telephone system switch board.  Guy had a very good telephone system to many families around Okfuskee.  A long with the switch board he had about 40 wall type dry cell battery equipped  telephones.  The  kind that you would do the ringing with a hand crank on the side.  One long ring and you would get the telephone office switch board.  Each house phone would have a different ring, such as: long-short-long or two longs.  Some houses were on the same party line.  Others would have to go through Central  to get their party.  Guy’s familiar voice, “Hello, Okfuskee” was a tradition.

Other than the lines around Okfuskee. he had lines to Okemah and part of the way to Okmulgee.  Persons going through the Okfuskee Office could talk to parties in Okemah, Nuyaka, and Okmulgee.  Guy’s telephone poles were mostly hand cut native oak poles.  They would not last many years and therefore kept him busy replacing them along the dusty, weedy roads.  Guy always had an old T Model Ford Roadster with a bed on the back where he carried a post hole digger, a short ladder, insulators and wire.  He usually employed a hello-girl to manage the switch board while he was out working on the lines.

Rent on the telephone was very moderate and I never knew Guy to send a bill.  Most people would bring in a payment once in a while, but some never did.  I never knew Guy to discontinue service or to remove their phone.

Guy’s living quarters consisted of a bed, a book shelf, a small pot bellied coal stove, a mirrored dresser, several chairs and the switch board.  Many visitors would come to visit with Guy and with one another.  People came from far and near to meet and talk.  Girls would come to use the mirror to curl their hair.  Often there would be a coal oil lamp with a pair of curling irons in the globe.  The girls would powder their nose.  Mothers would come to lay their babies on the bed to change their diapers.  Guy would never complain, but would visit with them all, with a receiving set on his head while he operated the switch-board.

At the front of the store, around the soda fountain and on the front porch, young people would gather to do their visiting and courting.  Buying a girl a stick of gum or a bottle of soda pop was considered to be a generous thing in those days.

At the back door was a well with a long rope, a pulley, and a long well bucket.  About one or two buckets and the well was dry, but it furnished enough water for Guy and the visitors who would drink out of a granite dipper and a galvanized bucket.

Guy did some snacking at his living quarters, but usually took his main meals at the home of near-by neighbors.  For years the Dunhams, then with the Margodents or Manwarrings,  and they generally charged him kinda like he charged for the telephone service, whatever and whenever he wanted to pay.  People around thought a lot of Guy and whenever there was a family dinner or community dinner some one either went and got Guy or took him a plate.

In 1925, the merchants or the town bought a Delco system for lights and electricity.  It was installed in Guy’s garage and Guy run it in the evenings to furnish light for the town.

Guy’s old store building was never painted, but was covered with signs advertising Patent Medicines, Snuff, Ringling Brothers Circus and Candidate signs.  In 1920, Guy moved his store from the south side of the street to the North side of Okfuskee where it remained as long as he lived.

Guy tried to keep the telephone service intact as long as he lived, but old age, both of himself and the old poles and equipment made the service somewhat inept.  His lines become nailed to trees, fence post or what ever he could find that he could nail an insulator to, that would hold up the wire.

Guy lived and operated a drug store and telephone service for over 60 years at Okfuskee.  He will not be soon forgotten by those who knew and loved him.

                                                WE WILL NOT FORGET

Submitted By: James L. Wade
Email Address:  [email protected]
Date Submitted: 2/12/04