New Year's Resolutions for 2011

I wish you a happy and healthy New Year. This article is about giving the gift of family history to children and future generations.

"How might I do that?" you ask.

First of all, keep in mind the story of your life is unique. You have seen, heard and done things no one else has. Why not take a moment to write about an amusing event from your past? That would be a good start.

You might also sit down with a notebook to start a journal. Even if you only make entries once a year, it still will be a record someone will cherish in the future.

I recall finding a few entries in a Big Chief school notepad my mother started, then quickly stopped. Here is a quote that gave me a snapshot of her thinking on January 1, 1942.

"Yes, I am remembering today. I am sorry that some are unhappy because of mistakes they have made." I have no idea who she was talking about being unhappy. But I am delighted to know that she was thinking of others that day.

You might start saving mementos of special occasions. I have especially enjoyed going to plays. Sometimes I have tucked a playbill into my journal as a keepsake. I find they these old playbills tickle an amusing recollection whenever I pull one out.

If you do not want to spend the effort in writing your recollections down, consider letting someone interview you. Or, you might interview someone yourself. The Three Rivers Museum has over 200 interviews preserved for the future.

Another precious gift to your family and friends involves your looking through your photographs. As you do, take the time to write the "when, where and who" on the back of the picture. (If you have a collection of digital photographs, take the time to label them with this information as well. This can be done in the file name.)

My parents kept their family pictures in my father's World War II Army ammunitions box. The only problem with this effort is that my mother used the wooden box to sit on when scrubbing behind my ears (and behind the ears of my three younger brothers).

This meant that my brothers and I could freely riffle through the photographs whenever we were alone in the bathroom. Of course, we often took the opportunity to do so. The resulting confusion we created means that my family collection now has many orphan images for which it is very difficult to identify the when's, where's and who's.

I have been trying my best to sort this mess into some meaningful order. One day I was trying to figure out where ten photographs fitted in the timeframe of my father's life. All I had were a group of negatives and one print to work with.

I finally decided that the pictures dated from the days when my father was in Army Basic Training in the summer of 1942.

I hope your New Year Resolutions will include one of the following:

Start a diary

Save a memento in a scrapbook

Identify the particulars on the back of your photographs

These New Year's Resolutions are especially aimed at the 10,000 Baby boomers who will be turning 65 each and every day during the coming year. Please resolve to give a little of yourself to the future. Happy New Year!

Christmas Season in 1879

Christmas Day fell on a Thursday in 1879. The editor of the Indian Journal printed the last issue of the year on Christmas Day as he usually did on Thursday mornings.

Newspaper accounts indicate church members were particularly active in Muskogee on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. The Presbyterian Church had a Christmas tree that year.

A group of women in Tahlequah announced that their tree was lighted with wax candles. It is not possible to say if the Presbyterian congregation lit their Christmas Eve tree with wax candles, too. But, it probably was.

Most families used candles sparingly because they were considered a luxury. Children seeing twenty or thirty candles on a tree Christmas Eve would have been excited by the experience.

Adults and children returned to the Presbyterian Church for a dinner on Christmas Day. Sunday School students got to eat for free. The grownups, on the other hand, paid for their meal. And it was worth the price. Imported oysters were the main dish.

Some members of the Creek tribe also celebrated the Christian holiday. They put up a Christmas tree at the old Creek Agency building. They gathered, too, for a feast on Christmas Day.

A fourth group said they were putting up a Christmas tree in Muskogee. This group was the congregation of the Colored Baptist Church. (Please note that the Colored Baptist Church was the church name as reported by the newspaper.)

The minister was Reverend R. A. Leslie. He arrived in the Muskogee in 1878 and was soon hired to teach children of the Creek Freedmen.

In the reverend's opinion, preaching went along with teaching. He baptized nearly half of his students the first year.

The location of the Colored Baptist Church in 1879 is uncertain. It possibly stood on the northwest corner of present day Third and Court Streets.

A blizzard swept across Indian Territory two days before Christmas. Only one store took advantage of the weather. James S. Atkinson's store immediately let the newspaper editor know that the store had ice skates for sale for both boys and girls.

Christmas was also the time of the year when commitments were made for the coming year. For example, Samuel Grey came into town from the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation on a shopping trip.

In addition to buying presents for his family, he added a newspaper subscription to his purchases. This was a gift he gave to himself.

It was a "treat" he would savor each week in the coming year. It lasted a whole year then and still does today. Only now, you may be "treated" every day throughout the year instead of only once a week.

This year, don't you deserve a similar treat, too?

1910 Holiday Sales

The winter of 1910 was a difficult time financially, just like it is in 2010. During that earlier winter, stores across the new state were still reacting to the Panic of 1907.

The 1907 financial downturn began with a run on the third largest banking company in New York City. When the bank's reserves proved to be insufficient, panic spread throughout the country. This sounds familiar, doesn't it?

There was less stability in the American banking system. This was before the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.

Oklahoma's own US Senator, Robert L. Owen, helped usher new banking legislation into passage in 1913. This law created the Federal Reserve System and brought back banking stability.

The Panic of 1907 caused business owners in Muskogee to slash prices to the bone to keep their doors open. A typical store was the Kansas City Cut Price Store. It opened on South Second Street during the boom years of the early 1900's.

Men clothing bargains were placed on numerous tables throughout the store. Heavy pants cost only ninety-eight cents each. Seamstresses would then measure the inseam for cuffing the pants for a correct fit.

Men's dress shirts were normally a dollar and a half; but for the holidays the price was reduced even further to ninety-three cents. Mr. Mussllem, the proprietor, sold men's handkerchiefs for a mere two pennies.

You may think men's handkerchiefs were too cheap. If so, then consider this. In the same advertisement, the Kansas City Cut Price Store was also selling ladies' fancy handkerchiefs for one penny.

Oklahomans knew it was wise to dress in heavier clothing during cooler weather. This was certainly true during the holiday season in December, 1910. Store owners took advantage of this when attracting customers.

The store advertised extra heavy undergarments for both genders that season. Ladies' extra heavy underwear cost 47 cents. Men's more utilitarian heavy underwear cost only fourteen cents each.

"Union suits" covered a person from neck to ankle. Children's heavy union suits also cost 47 cents. Medium weight suits for children cost twenty-three cents each.

The store sold extra heavy all-wool stocks in a variety of colors to go along with the half-priced shoes. They cost eighteen cents a pair. Wool shawls cost a little more than the wool socks. They were priced at 27 cents.

These prices in 1910 point out the competitiveness of the American business owner. This was before "Black Friday" or "Cyber Monday" sales frenzy that now follows Thanksgiving.

The effect of inflation means that an item costing one dollar in 1910 would cost almost $23 today. Prices and fashions have changed; the ups and down of the Oklahoma economy have not.

So goes the old saying: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Bessie Huff's Early Education, Part 2

These were the events surrounding Bessie Huff in 1910. Her father was serving on the Muskogee town council along with Grant Foreman. He had returned to farming, the career he followed the rest of his life. Mr. Huff also canvassed two districts for the United States census in April and May for added income.

Bessie's mother was active socially like many women who stayed at home. She was a member of the Woman's History Club. Mrs. Huff's college training helped her fit in with the other members because the club had a dual agenda. While club meetings were social gatherings for friends, the members also educated themselves about historical and current events through book reviews.

Meanwhile, daughter Bessie was very busy proving that she was among the most popular women in the western part of town. When a Muskogee newspaper conducted a popularity contest, Bessie's name quickly moved up to the middle of the pack. Near the end of the contest, Bessie ranked fourth with over 28,000 votes.

The contest allowed Bessie to develop positive life skills. It was not exactly a rigged contest, but it was certainly not a beauty contest either.

Bessie proved she was well spoken when meeting people. Her thoughts were well organized for conveying the message of her candidacy. She was persuasive. Bessie demonstrated that she already knew which values had meanings for her audience.

The winning candidates needed a coordinated team campaigning on their behalf. The high rating for Bessie confirms that she had friends and acquaintances in both the high school student body and in the community at large. She clearly was successful in motivating supporters to "get out the vote."

Unfortunately, Bessie did not rank in Muskogee's top four when the contest ended in the middle of May. After all, she was only seventeen at the time of the contest. Given her earlier high score, she had to have been at the top for her part of town.

Bessie returned to Central High School for her senior year that fall. Throughout the year, she continued honing her public speaking skills. She did not continue working on "The Scout," the student newspaper that she helped establish the previous year. School records show she had perfect attendance from January to May of 1911. She was now a composed eighteen-year-old young lady.

It was time for another performance given by the high school history club. Some of her fellow club members performed in a play entitled "Six Cups of Chocolate." As usual, Bessie was not a member of the cast. She remained true to her past by giving another "reading."

At the end of her senior year, the local newspaper listed the different papers graduates wrote for their senior thesis. Bessie was the only senior listed as having written two theses. Her topics were entitled "Wagoner's Opera" and "The Ring."

Bessie Maree Huff graduated from Muskogee's Central High School two weeks later, in early June of 1911. She was part of a class of 14 boys and 21 girls who had studied under five teachers. Her class was the third class since Central High School opened in 1908.