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May 10, 2009
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS A busy week for the museum with visitors from outside the state attending family reunions or simply visiting the area. Wednesday was full of accessing new items into our collection and Georgia with Mildred's help repacking our textiles into new boxes and special paper to preserve them correctly. LaVaun and Dorothy have been working while Lovella is recovering from her surgery which occurred on Monday. We are told that she is home and walking . We wish her well and very speedy recovery. Another visitor was in the area inventoring all the historical markers for each county. There is a website historicalmarkers.com that has a list of all the historical markers in the United States. I plan to visit and will report back to you on what I find. We gave him a complete listing for our county. So we will be on the list with a description and location for each of our markers. The rain has been great and the landscape is green with our wildflowers and gardens coming to life. Please enjoy this wonderful weather by venturing out to see the sites and stop in at your local museums or find the historical markers in the area. There is always something new to see and learn about the history of this area. We are busy and excited about our upcoming fundraiser at Verle Wood's homestead. The event will be Saturday, June 6 at 5 pm . Dinner, stories, and entertainment promise an evening of fun. Tickets are $25 and are available at the museum. Call for a reservation today. You may also tell one of the Wednesday volunteers to bring you tickets. HISTORICAL MUSINGS With Spring here, we often here people saying they have spring fever and are suffering from cabin fever from being closed in the house all winter. To each of us these feeling are dealt with differently. To the Bell brothers they were getting jittery in May, 1919 from having to wait on the U.S. government and not the Spring time. To the south , steel rails of the railroad were ever reaching westward and J.W. and O.C. Bell were awaiting word that they had permission to move their post office from LaKemp, OK to the soon to be Booker, TX. On a Sunday in May, 1919, O.C. decided to take the matter in his own hands. No use waiting, he reasoned. In a few months there would be little of LaKemp to give mail service to, anyway. So why not move the post office now? It was no sooner said than done. He secured the services of Jim Gordon and his team of four horses and started loading up the post office lock, stock and barrel. On Monday, Booker had a post office and mail service. The little 18 x 20 ft. building that the Bell Brothers moved the Post Office into soon became also a home for the Edwards National Bank, and J.W. Bell & Co. real estate and insurance busineww. The post office filled one corner, the bank the other corner with the remaining space used by the real estate office. One year from the date that O.C. Bell moved the Post Office, the word came from Official Washington authorizing the move. O.C. Bell lived most of his life in Booker since coming here on that Sunday. He saw the town grow from a small beginning to a town of over a 1000. When the town was incorporated in 1920, O.C. served as a member of the first Board of Alderman. He left Booker from 1933 to 1940 serving with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. In 1945 he bought the Hiland Hotel, renamed it the Bell Hotel and lived at the hotel until his death in 1953. His wife Julia died in 1992. The information above was originally part of an article in the Booker News, July 28, 1949. Have a great week. |
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