Oklahoma City, Okla., Sept. 23, 1923.
Editor, Western Star:When I severed my connection with The Oklahoman and The Times, our morning and evening newspapers here, about five years ago, I flattered myself that I thought I was through with the rather tedious ordeal of grinding out "copy" for print, but you have been so kind in furnishing me with copies of your interesting publication containing the reminiscences of the old-timers of Comanche-co., that I can no longer find it in my heart to deny you a few lines from one who, more in the capacity of an "innocent bystander" than one engaged in the real work of settling and developing your region, witnessed some of the early struggles and vicissitudes of your people.
It is no misnomer for me to say that I virtually "grew up" in Coldwater. As Mark Twain would say, at the early age of thirteen summers. I took my parents by the hand and led them westward. We landed in Coldwater in September, 1884. My father had preceded our family there and erected us a habitat a block or so north of your thoroughfare. Incidentally he had staked a preemption claim some twelve miles north of Coldwater on the head-waters of Mule Creek and "took up," as the vernacular went in those days, a quarter-section of school land nearby. This, I was advised was the limit in individual land-grabbing at that time. If one's ambition in this connection soared to even loftier heights, he was compelled to either impress the head right of relatives or make a turn with the cowboys in his employ.
Coldwater, in September, 1884, when I first marveled at its commercial possibilities, was a hustling, bustling community of some 600 or 800 people. The town site was owned by Harper, Kans., people. Tim Shields, as I remember, was the head of the affair. Sitting on the bald prairie in a totally undeveloped semi-arid region sixty miles from the nearest railroad point, the outlook was one which ordinarily would have sickened weaker hearts. But the pioneers of that day were built of sterner stuff. They envisioned a metropolis of towering sky-scrapers, flanked on many sides by gigantic manufacturing institutions and a citizenship whose numbers would some day make the gaping world gasp. Despite the fact that all new arrivals came in via the Medicine Lodge stage route and all supplies were hauled in from Kinsley, the spirit of those pioneers were a sight for the gods. The county was still unorganized. Neither local government or public schools obtained anywhere. We got along with a subscription school of an abbreviated term during the first winter. After that came organized county government and public schools. The following season saw the town stretch out and grow at a highly gratifying pace.
Late in the fall or early winter of '84 (1884), the initial steps were taken to organize the county. The dominant issue before the settlers of the new county at that time was the enforcement of the herd law. Quite naturally the settlers were for the rigid enforcement of this act, for the very simple reason that they could scarcely hope to develop their claims with the herds of the ranch men running at large. Equally as insistent, though perhaps not so vocal., was the contention of the cattlemen that the county was good for nothing but grazing lands and that the new-comers were messing things up for them in an unwanted degree. Needless to say, the settlers triumphed.
I shall never forget the first convention ever held in Comanche-co. It was held in the open at the corner of Main street and Central-ave. one balmy December day when a full complement of county officers were nominated. Though a lad of but 14 summers at the time, I participated, along with a dozen or so of boy companions, as fully in the proceedings of this convention as any of the more matured residents of the county. I have forgotten who served in the capacity of master of ceremonies, but I recall vividly how we nominated our favorites. "All who are in favor of this candidate," the chairman would direct, "will get on this side of the street (motioning) while all who are in favor of his opponent will get on the opposite side of the street." And then the counting of noses began. The candidate who mustered the greatest number of individuals on his side of the street was declared nominee. The votes of us boys counted as fully as though we had attained to our majority. Among the nominees of that convention, I recall the names of Joe Bowers for sheriff, A. Darroch for county treasurer and J. D. F. Jennings for probate judge. The names of the balance of the nominees have slipped my memory. The product of that convention was know as the Herd-Law ticket and was elected overwhelmingly at the subsequent election.
About this time, or it may have been at the same election, we also located the county seat by popular vote. Coldwater and Nescatunga were the rival aspirants. N. S. Mounts, now a resident of Pottawatomie-co., this state, was conducting a newspaper at Nescatunga at the time and the manner in which he assailed Coldwater and her claims to the county seat was enough to make the blood of her partisans boil. Here was the first time the newspaper bug ever hit me. I craved some means of replying to his arguments. Nevertheless and notwithstanding, Coldwater won out handily in the balloting, and Nescatunga faded and blew away in the years that followed.
The preceding lines impel me to interject a word personal which may or may not be of interest to my Comanche-co. friends who have kept track of me during all the years I have spent elsewhere. They are perhaps aware that I have been engaged in newspaper work practically all my life. The first time I ever saw the inside of a printing office was when I was in Coldwater, and that institution was none other than the Western Star. As a boy eager to earn a bit of spending money, I "rolled" for the Star on press day. That means that I inked the forms while some one else pulled the Washington hand press on which it was printed. Later, I began learning the printing trade under Henry Oldfather and John Templeton, of the Coldwater Review.
This reminds me that at one time in her history, Coldwater was the proud possessor of four newspapers at one and the same time, each vying with the others in singing her praises in the skies. It's not to be marveled at that, under these circumstances, her ambition in the early days was a bit altitudinous (sic).
Perhaps the stellar event in Coldwater's early-day history was the coming of the railroad. From the settlement of the county and the organization of the town, our more enterprising citizens joined hands in putting Coldwater on the railroad map. The opportunity came in 1886. The Santa Fe agreed to build its present line on condition that the people of the county bond themselves in an amount which I have forgotten, to aid the company in its construction. Our keen visioned leaders foresaw the defeat of these bonds at the polls unless the people of the south half of the county were brought into the deal. Accordingly, they endured the Missouri Pacific to submit a proposition involving the construction of a line across the southern part of the county touching Avilla. These two bond propositions were submitted to the voters at the same time. Both carried, as I recall. The Santa Fe branch was completed into Coldwater in 1887, but the Missouri Pacific was never built.
The exodus of Comanche county people to the opening of Old Oklahoma was one of the memorable events of my time. I do not believe I am exaggerating the case in the least when I state that half of the people of the county participated in that movement. We had just passed through two or three crop failures and the lure of the new country was irresistible. Apparently, everybody migrated who could get away. I frequently run across old-time Comanche-co. people in my peregrinations over the state. The bulk of them are doing well. Many of them have amassed comfortable fortunes. Some have attained to positions of honor and trust. The hustling qualities they absorbed under the tutelage of early-day Comanche-co. conditions have stood them in good stead.
I could rattle on indefinitely with reminiscences of my Comanche-co experiences. I know something, however, of the limitations of newspaper space, "Nuf Sed."
ROY STAFFORD.
Also see:
Coldwater Centennial Notebook, 1884 - 1894: a history of Coldwater's 1st 100 years, by Evelyn Reed.
Edna E. (Smith) STAFFORD
Surnames: Cash, Fairman, Maxey & Stafford.John R. STAFFORD
Surnames: Smith, Stafford & Straight.Frank A. KIMPLE
"Some Early Day Experiences Recalled"
(Including Roy E. Stafford's stolen ride on a freight train)
The Western Star, July 4, 1924 and January 2, 1925.
Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!
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