Did You Know...

In January 1916, the city began construction of 5 buildings around the courthouse. (Sapulpa Herald, January 10, 1916).

1) One was for C.B. Cox who owned the Buick and Ford dealerships. The building was to be a one story, brick building on the southeast corner of Dewey and Elm Street. This is now a parking lot for the courthouse. It was being built over the old frog pond and was to have the largest plate glass front in town.
2) Mr. E.E. Cowman was building a two story brick building at 213-215 E Dewey with the ability to add more floors if necessary later on. This (was) Doodles Hallmark Store.
3) The third building was to be a two story brick building at 205-207 E Dewey. It was being built by W.R. Casteel who was the guardian of the granddaughter of Sahquannay Long.
4) The fourth building was to start within sixty days and it would be a three story brick building called the Pioneer Building. It was actually the new telephone building and would be built in 1917-1918.
5) The fifth building was thought to be an opera house but was actually built later as the Clayton Building.

​Artifact(s) of the Month

​Fire (ball or grenade) extinguishers for emergencies. These a small extinguishers for very small fires. The idea is to throw or break the glass over the fire and put it out. The red ball (on the left) is plastic and could be hung on the Christmas tree; this ball no longer has the water inside of it. However, the red paint flaked ball (on the right) is glass, it used to be painted fully red, and still has the mixed water inside of it - see the bubbles?

The plastic one came out around the 1940s and 1950s. The glass one is older, and may have been developed as early as 1890 (but went out of commission around 1920 or 1930).

Then and Now images of Sapulpa history:

(Then) meet Boe, Moe, Co, the three wreckers driven by Joe Bacon, Pete Belk, Bob Wadley at Standard Chevrolet Company, 1951

(Now) Cecil & Sons Discount Tire - started in 1973 in Sand Springs

Did you know...

Gene Autry's & Jimmie Wilson's obituaries were nearly a page in length, featured in the Sapulpa Herald?

Gene Autry: "True-blue singing cowboy Gene Autry dead at 91" (Sapulpa Herald, Oct 4, 1998)
Will Rogers once heard a young Gene Autry strumming a guitar and singing in an Oklahoma telegraph office.
'You're good,' he said. 'Stick to it, young fellow, and you'll make something of yourself.'
Autry did much more than that, serenading generations of children as the nation's original singing cowboy and becoming a gentle moralist for millions of fans of the American West as he built a fortune in business.
Autry died at his home Friday after a long illness, three days after turning 91.
Beloved for his signature song, 'Back in the Saddle Again,' Autry popularized the musical western in 91 movies from the 1930s to the early '50s by playing the same character: a true-blue cowboy who always fought  fair and loved his, Champion.
'He often considered himself the baby sitter of three generations of children' while they watched his movies on Saturday afternoons, said Alex Gordon who met Autry 52 years ago and became his director of licensing.
'And these weren't just bang-bang, shot 'em up Westerns. He always wanted to put a moral in the story.'
Autry's 'Cowboy Code' contained eight rules to live by. The first: 'The cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man or take unfair advantage.'
In fact, Autry did punch first in an out-of-character confrontation at a nightspot in Wisconsin in 1946. He gave a fan an autograph but lost his temper when the man scolded him for not providing more. Autry's blow led the man to file charges - and taught the star a lesson.
'I said right then, no matter how much a guy tries to get under my skin, that's the last time I'll let it get to the point where I'll hit someone,' he recalled.
Instead, Autry built his successful broadcasting business and founded baseball's California Angels as an American League franchise in 1961. He sold 25 percent of the team, now renamed Walt Disney Co. in 1996.
He hung up his performing spurs in 1956, but continued to won four radio stations, a Palm Springs hotel, and several other properties. In 1982, he sold Los Angels television station KTLA for $245 million.
He ranked for many years on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans, before falling in 1995 to the magazine's 'near miss' category with an estimated net worth of $320 million.
'He knew the singing cowboy had pretty much died out by 1954 and that's when he moved on to other things,' said James Nottage, vice-president and chief curator of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. 'He had incredible business savvy.'

Artifact of the Month:

Gene Autry, "Back in the Saddle Again" album, circa 1966.

Gene Autry bio on the back of the album:
"There was this eighteen-year-old boy in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, back in the mid-twenties working as a railroad telegrapher. A passenger got off the train one day and happened to hear the lad singing. The passenger allowed as how if the boy kept up the good work he'd be a success. The passenger was Will Rogers. The telegrapher was Gene Autry.

"Gene, figuring Will should know what he was talking about, set out for Hollywood with his horse. (He was no phony cowboy-he was born a real ranch near Tiago, Texas.) Now, there had been countless cowboy heroes in the movies-but Gene was the first singing cowboy to become a worldwide celebrity. For some thirty years his home was on the range (on location and in the studio), and he made millions from motion pictures, writing and publishing some two hundred songs, writing and publishing some two hundred songs, and by dealing in real estate as well. He now also owns the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, just to mention another project.

"But all this affluence should not obscure the fact that he is one of the est singers of cowboy songs ever. His basic wonderful way with a song, his warmth and sincerity-these are what made it all possible. In this album you will find some of the greatest songs he has ever sung."

Then and Now images of Sapulpa:

The court house gazebo was the hangout place for its town's members to picnic, listen to talks, play music, and dance. Who has fond memories or stories to share about this place in town?

• (Then) 1938, band stand with large crowd behind court house - picture taken from the steps of the post office on the corner of Elm and Lee.
• (Now) 2018, gazebo had been moved from directly behind the court house to adjacent to the parking lot - picture taken from Lee
• (Bonus #1) c. 1945-1948, Jim Payne, Walter Brecht, Raymond Asher, Walter Chambers, TJ Kennedy, Don Bacon, Bo Christain, John Brenlinger, Glenn Wilson hanging out at the gazebo
• (Bonus #2) c. 1940, gazebo post card with post office in the background
• (Bonus #3) March-May 1932, construction of post office on Lee and Elm, can see gazebo in background
• (Bonus #4) 1998, new gazebo for one of the projects for city's centennial (100-year) anniversary

Did You Know...

President Wilson, speaking before a joint session of congress, announced the breaking off relations with Germany on February 3, 1917; he did not declare war at this time. However, just weeks later, both houses of Congress had passed resolutions declaring war on Germany - we were now officially in World War I, April 6, 1917.

​These are a few of the headlines of Sapulpa Herald and Creek County Republic when President Woodrow Wilson and Congress announced the United States will join the Great War, World War I. (Sapulpa Herald & Creek County Republic April 6, 1917).

Artifact(s) of the Month:

​Euchee Mission artifacts such as the 1917 pennant girls' basketball, 1916 superintendent's (W.E. Darner) school bell, and wooden board from the Euchee school building are just some of the Euchee or Yuchi artifacts we have on display, showcasing Sapulpa's diverse culture. *Bonus Artifact* Euchee Indian School Military Veterans 1894-1947 (in 2007, it was unveiled to the public by the Euchee Alumni and Creek Nation Casino Board of Directors)

Much credit for founding the school is due to Samuel Brown, Noah Gregory, Henry Land, and William Sapulpa, whose work influenced the Creek Council to make an appropriation for the school from Tribal Funds. Buildings were then erected and the school opened in the fall of 1894, enrolling about fifty students of all ages. In the beginning the school was co-educational and had only three buildings, including two dormitories and a three-room schoolhouse, all located on forty-acres of Tribal property.

The Council appointed Euchee and Methodist minister, Noah Gregory, as the school's first superintendent. Henry Land and William Sapulpa then followed as second & third superintendents, respectively.

The school was improved, enlarged, and maintained by appropriations from Creek funds until 1928 when it was taken over and supported entirely by federal appropriations under supervision of the U.S. Native American office.

In 1947, the school closed, when the land and buildings were sold to school district no. 33 for use by the public schools.