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July 1, 2012
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS Time for art exhibit change. Everyone has enjoyed Mike Winnette's feather art and we are looking forward to the art of Dallas Mayer and Anna Mayer, Hooker,OK. They were students of Dord Fitz and exhibits a piece last year when we had the Dord Fitz exhibit. So plan to beat the heat and come and see their work. We will be taking Mike's down and putting Dallas's and Anna's up this week. Peg Herriage is home for the summer and is inventorying all our art work. We have spent several Wednesday's locating paintings, pictures, and photographs. We are not always good at our paperwork when we move one of our collection from the archive room to an exhibit or vice versa. We also rearrange the archive room and forget to complete paperwork. All of this produces fun Wednesdays when we go treasure hunting. It is fun looking through our collections but also frustrating. Another discussion that is occurring with the team is the difference in a painting and a picture. Is a picture also a photograph? If you have a good source for these categories, please send them to us. Calling all 5th thru 8th graders, join us for a fun filled four day in August for a night at the museum historical adventure. Call the museum to register. 806-852-2123. HISTORICAL MUSINGS Continuing the story of A.H.Roden, He had left his horse with the Blacksmith for a new shoe. When he picked up his horse and had paid him, his"frozen assets" were now $3.85. As he was leaving the blacksmith asked him "which way are you headed puncher?" Mr. Roden responded saying he was headed to the Panhandle to look for work. The blacksmith replied with "I have an old friend who is ranching just South of Higgins, Texas, and if you'll go to see him he'll give you a job...."Wait a minute, and I'll write him a note and I know he'll give you work." So he rustled up a lead pencil about one inch long, went to a homemade "desk" in one corner of the shop and fished out a sheet of paper with his name and business printed on it....The printed 'letterhead' read thus: J.J. Lewis, Blacksmith, Wood, Okla. After some labored effort, he concluded his message to his friend, folded the paper carefully, and handed it to me with the instructions : 'When you get to the ranch if John is not there don't give this note to any of the rest of the bunch....John is BOSS and what He says goes. After he left and had gone a distance, A.H. could not resist reading the letter which read : Dear John: Give this puncher a job. He is a good lad, -can do anything. I may see you before a great while. If you happen this way look me up. Your Friend, J.J. Lewis. But on the last line at the very bottom of the page, he wrote in very small letters, in Parenthesis (Berry P-). When he had finished reading this recommendation he thought :"this guy's name is not LEWIS but what difference does it make to me. A job is what I want, so I chuckled over the "recommendation" he had given me and proceeded on his journey. A.H. meets Walter Carr who is working on the Ewing Ranch on the North side of Canadian river. He was feeding some of John Griffith cows. Carr offered him a job to help him with his cattle and he stayed. In about ten days John Griffith came along with Will Hale. In reading the letter, "He read it carefully, and when he glanced at the (Berry,P) at the bottom of the page he glanced at me and inquire "how long have you known this fella LEWIS Just long enough for him to shoe my hoss and write that note....That fellow's name is not LEWIS,...His name is Berry Pursley,. He and I did work together for about two years in Arizona. He Killed a fellow and skipped, I tried to get him to stay and fight it out, but he would not listen to me. I have heard of him a time or two, always going by a different name. Years later about 1913, he was reading a paper from Anson and the headlines read "BERRY PURSLEY KILLED WITH HIS OWN GUN. -J.J. Lewis, one-time blacksmith of Wood, OK. . Said he married a widow who owned a ranch in Stonewall County, Texas, that she had a son about 17 years old by a former marriage. Berry P. came in "stewed" and was abusing his wife - the boy's mother- the boy picked up "Berry's gun which he had lain in the window and shot Berry, killing him instantly. Said the gun had three "notches" on it - went on to say he killed his first man in Arizona, etc. but had gotten out of it all- then married the widow." More next week. |
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