Back to Histories
Written by Otto Goins
Guy Wheeler, a legend around Okfuskee, came from Indiana via
El Reno, Oklahoma in 1886 with the Wheeler family. Following his brother, Park
Wheeler who settled on a tract of land four miles east and two miles north of
Okfuskee. His parents, W. N. and Ann Wheeler settled one mile south and one mile
west of Okfuskee. Guy, not cut out to be a farmer or a rancher saw an
opportunity to open a business at Okfuskee. In 1901, he move a store-front
building from “Old Okfuskee” located one mile west and three-fourths mile north
of Okfuskee. There had been a post office and bank located there for some years
before. The sandstone foundations still exist to this day. At Okfuskee, Guy
opened a drug store selling patent medicines, lotions, liniments, cosmetics,
etc.
In the front of the store he had a soda fountain, a marble top counter
and a very large mirror. At times he had ice-cream and ice that he kept in a ice
house, a little building outside where he covered a 300 pound block of ice with
saw dust. He also sold candy, chewing gum, cigars and pop.
In the back of the
store he had living quarters and also the telephone system switch board. Guy had
a very good telephone system to many families around Okfuskee. A long with the
switch board he had about 40 wall type dry cell battery equipped telephones. The
kind that you would do the ringing with a hand crank on the side. One long ring
and you would get the telephone office switch board. Each house phone would have
a different ring, such as: long-short-long or two longs. Some houses were on the
same party line. Others would have to go through Central to get their party.
Guy’s familiar voice, “Hello, Okfuskee” was a tradition.
Other than the lines
around Okfuskee. he had lines to Okemah and part of the way to Okmulgee. Persons
going through the Okfuskee Office could talk to parties in Okemah, Nuyaka, and
Okmulgee. Guy’s telephone poles were mostly hand cut native oak poles. They
would not last many years and therefore kept him busy replacing them along the
dusty, weedy roads. Guy always had an old T Model Ford Roadster with a bed on
the back where he carried a post hole digger, a short ladder, insulators and
wire. He usually employed a hello-girl to manage the switch board while he was
out working on the lines.
Rent on the telephone was very moderate and I never
knew Guy to send a bill. Most people would bring in a payment once in a while,
but some never did. I never knew Guy to discontinue service or to remove their
phone.
Guy’s living quarters consisted of a bed, a book shelf, a small pot
bellied coal stove, a mirrored dresser, several chairs and the switch board.
Many visitors would come to visit with Guy and with one another. People came
from far and near to meet and talk. Girls would come to use the mirror to curl
their hair. Often there would be a coal oil lamp with a pair of curling irons in
the globe. The girls would powder their nose. Mothers would come to lay their
babies on the bed to change their diapers. Guy would never complain, but would
visit with them all, with a receiving set on his head while he operated the
switch-board.
At the front of the store, around the soda fountain and on the
front porch, young people would gather to do their visiting and courting. Buying
a girl a stick of gum or a bottle of soda pop was considered to be a generous
thing in those days.
At the back door was a well with a long rope, a pulley,
and a long well bucket. About one or two buckets and the well was dry, but it
furnished enough water for Guy and the visitors who would drink out of a granite
dipper and a galvanized bucket.
Guy did some snacking at his living quarters,
but usually took his main meals at the home of near-by neighbors. For years the
Dunhams, then with the Margodents or Manwarrings, and they generally charged him
kinda like he charged for the telephone service, whatever and whenever he wanted
to pay. People around thought a lot of Guy and whenever there was a family
dinner or community dinner some one either went and got Guy or took him a plate.
In 1925, the merchants or the town bought a Delco system for lights and
electricity. It was installed in Guy’s garage and Guy run it in the evenings to
furnish light for the town.
Guy’s old store building was never painted, but
was covered with signs advertising Patent Medicines, Snuff, Ringling Brothers
Circus and Candidate signs. In 1920, Guy moved his store from the south side of
the street to the North side of Okfuskee where it remained as long as he lived.
Guy tried to keep the telephone service intact as long as he lived, but old age,
both of himself and the old poles and equipment made the service somewhat inept.
His lines become nailed to trees, fence post or what ever he could find that he
could nail an insulator to, that would hold up the wire.
Guy lived and
operated a drug store and telephone service for over 60 years at Okfuskee. He
will not be soon forgotten by those who knew and loved him.
WE WILL NOT
FORGET
Submitted By: James L. Wade
Email Address:jhwade@cotc.net
Date
Submitted: 2/12/04