The Davenport New Era (Davenport, Okla.), Vol. 9, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 22, 1917 Page: 1 of 14
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A
The Davenport New Era
"Ye Little Ole Home Paper
99
VOLUME 9
DAVENPORT, OKLAHOMA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1917
NUMBER 41
LAUREL CONCERT CO.
MAKES BIG HIT HERE
DECLARED ONE OF THE BEST
ENTERTAINMENTS THAT
EVER VISITED OUR
LITTLE CITY
HEXT LYCEUM NUMBER HOME TALENT
Early Days in Davenport as Re-1
4 membered by Mr. Chas. T. Hedges
Oct. 7, 1917
of
Only a small crowd was in at-
tendance at the Lyceum enter-
tainment by the Laurel Concert
Company in the Auditorium Tues-
day night of this week, but all
who attended were more than
pleased with an excellent pro-
gram given by three most charm-
ing young ladies.
The program was opened with
a beautiful Hawaiian medley by
piano, saxophone and violin.
Miss Helen Peck showed rare
talent in her beautiful violin
solos, and her readings for the
little folks were beyond com-
parison.
Miss Ellen .lane Lindsay cer-
tainly has a well trained voice,
for her repertoire of songs ex-
tends from the highest to the
lowest pitch, and is one of the
best we have ever had the pleas-
ure of hearing. Also her crayon
drawings were fine.
And last, but not least import-
ant, Miss Neva Crumrine shows Old timers will
herself a master of the saxo-! round up Sailor
phone, besides being an excellent
player on the piano and clarionet.
And her readings were very
realistic, especially the Thanks-
giving story.
All in all, we must give it to
the Laurel Concert Company for
being the most versatile players
that have visited Davenport in lo
these many years.
The next number on the Ly-
ceum Course will be given by the
local talent of the High School
some time next month. Further
announcements as to kind of
entertainment, price of admis-
sion, etc., will be printed in this
paper soon.
Crossett, Ark
Editor New Era:
Somebody sent me a copy
your paper of October 4th, con-
taining the article by "Jaques"
on the early days of Davenport
and your invitation to the old
timers to contribute other stories
of the first days of the town, and
it has occured to me that possibly
something from me about those
old days might be of interest to
the readers of your excellent
paper.
It must have been along in the
fall of 1905 that Leonard Barker
and I gave up jobs on the Chand-
ler Daily Publicist and leased the
Davenport Leader from Ben
Craig. The Leader had been
under the management of Mr.
Craig and Clem Rondel, Jr., then
a boy in knee breeches, and it; was a feed store an(,
was under their administration |
PROF. BLANK FORMS
A SINGING CLASS
N. P. Myers went to Missouri
yesterday to buy some corn.
F. A. Messersmith and M. H.
Nickell were in Shawnee Tues-
day evening.
Misses Mattie and Anna Ad-
ams and Willa Harvey attended
the concert at Chandler Monday
night.
The barbers have added a third
chair. This one is to be used by
their student barber, Mr. Ezzie
Pinson.
Miss Mabel Mitchell arrived the
first of the week from M#mphis,
Texas, for a few days visit at
home before going to Holdenville
to accept a government position.
that Jimmie (Sailor) Burns hon-
ored Davenport with his services.
Jimmie was the only man I ever
knew who had the temerity to
address my dignified friend, A. J.
Langer, by the name "Tony."
remember the
had with Fred
Nestlerode in the oil well meet-
ing in the school house, and a
good many of them will remem-
ber the medicine bottle which he
concealed in the back room of the
shop. The directions on this bot-
tle were, "Take one teaspoonful
or more if needed."
Leonard and I signed up the
lease in C. C. Randel's townsite
office which stood about where
Dr. Baird's office was later built,
and I have very vivid recollection
of the kindly comments made by
Uncle Harve Randel who sat
with his chair propped back
against the wall and his corncob
pipe wheezing with the asthma.
God rest Uncle Harve's soul. He
never got himself mixed up in
any of the little quarrels we used
to have but he had a kind and
encouraging word tor somebody
on every occasion.
The new editors assumed the
management of the paper with
high hopes of immediate riches.
The Hivick Bros, were drilling
in the oil well east of town and
would strike a gusher any day.
Cannell coal had already been
struck in the well and even if oil
did not appear the coal was
enough to assure Davenport's
success. Statehood was soon to
be secured and Davenport, being
in the exact center of the new
state, would undoubtedly be
chosen capital. We would move
the county seat over to Daven-
port anyway as soon as we were
as large as Chandler and then a
daily could be made of the Leader
with full leased wire news ser-
vice. We were not more opto-
mistic than the rest of the busi-
ness men.
Let's recall things as they were
then. The Leader was in the
little red building across from
the store where Dr. Ridley and
his two sons kept a stock of
drugs and the telephone ex-
change. Do you remember the
doctor's rules regarding the use
of the phone? "If you have no
phone walking is good and not
all taken up. Fifty cents reward
for reporting the names of people
whistling, cat-calling or making
other offensive noises over the
phone."
Across the street from the
drug store L. G. Miller had his
hardware store. Next to him
I can't re-
member who owned it. Then
came Welty's restaurant—Welty
and Myers, at first—and then the
famous crouquet grounds. Those
Kentuckians took their croquet
seriously as they did their
A GOOD CROWD PRESENT IN
SPITE OF BAD WEATHER
—MUCH INTEREST IS
SHOWN HERE
WILL BE HERE AGAIN NEXT SUNDAY
politics. During one or two
summers no day was too hot for
the game and almost hourly dis-
putes and rag-chewings arose
that brought people from all up
and down the street in eager ex-
pectation of a fight. No serious
trouble ever resulted, although
many big words passed. About
the noisiest one of these quarrels
was the one in which Bill Boggs
proposed to brain Crosby Burgess
with a mallet, or maybe it was
Burgess who started in to do
murder. Such troubles probably
affected the friendship of the two
men for a week. If I remember
correctly the croquet grounds
were abolished because such loud
talk gave Mrs. Welty the head-
ache. Christy's livery barn was
next. Every time O. D. Groom
hired a team from Christy, he let
it run away and break up some-
thing and Christy's expressive
language on such occasions will
be remembered.
On the other side of the street
was the store of Hugo and Port-
er. Porter was a famous collect-
or. If a farmer sold his cotton
and didn't show up at the store
to pay up soon enough Porter
went out after him and when the
conversation was over everybody
for a quarter of a mile around
knew just how much the farmer
owed, just how long he had owed
it, when he had promised to pay
and just what kind of a sun of-a-
gun he was generally.
In this block, possibly a little
later in time, were L. A. Coch-
in spite of the most disagree-
able weather Sunday af;ernoon,
a good crowd of ent iusiastic
singers and players me! at the
Christian church at 2:30 and
under the direction of Professor
Blank of Oklahoma City, organ-
ized a singing class thai promises
to make the county sit up and
take notice. A male quartette
and a ladies quartette were both
organized, besides the large
choruS with orchestra accompani-
ment.
Prof. Blank seems to have
made quite a hit with ti.*- young
people who like to sing, and
seems quite encouraged in the
work he hopes to icqomplish
here. His training in t Musical
Institute of Mississippi • inb.ned
with his four years exi> ri jnce in
conducting this kind of work, and
his pleasing personal! y show
him thoroughly comj < . nt, and
we predict that if the interest
keeps up something wonderful
will be accomplished here.
On account of the reorganiza-
tion, not much singing was done
last Sunday, but next Sunday it
is hoped that the weather will be
a little more agreeable and that
a still larger crowd will be pres-
ent and we hope to get down to
business proper. Renu mber the
hour is 2:30 and that this is an
opportunity to study music under
one of the best artists of the
South.
The affair is being financed by
the local organization of Gideons,
and costs the singers nothing but
a sufficient amount of interest
and effort.
[ Note.—Prof. Blank wishes to
correct the idea that the opera
music mentioned in the article
last week is to be sung in the
church. This will not happen.
Should this class of music be tak-
en up some other place will be
arranged as a rehersal studio.]
We have some more old papers
for sale at this office.
(Continued on the back page)
Merchants requiring any spec-
ial position for their advertising
in our Holiday Number this year,
should make their reservations
at this office at once.
Misses Nellie Hall and Margie
Hancock walked down from Ken-
drick Tuesday evening after
school to see and hear the Laurel
Concert Company. They return-
ed to Kendrick in a car Wednes-
day morning.
•1
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Tryon, W. M. The Davenport New Era (Davenport, Okla.), Vol. 9, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 22, 1917, newspaper, November 22, 1917; Davenport, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc109454/m1/1/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.