r L. Boyd

My father was Anderson Boyd, born in southwest Missouri in 1840.  He was a Confederate Soldier during the Civil War.  My mother was Susan Clark Boyd, born in Boonville, Missouri.  Father was a livery man and a laborer.

I was born November 13th, 1876 at McKinney, Texas.  I had an uncle living in Ardmore, so I  came on the train to Ardmore in 1890.  We lived in a frame house and used water out of a well.  I thought I had never seen so much wind and dust as there was in that town.  when we sat down to eat our meals we had to brush the dust from the table.  There was only one brick building in town at that time.  The main street had three blocks of business buildings and tents.  It wasn't a violation of law to sell beer in Ardmore and there were at least ten places where beer could be bought.  These beer parlors were similar to he saloons of other states.  There was sawdust on the floor, swinging doors and brass rails at the bars.  There were five gambling houses.  The United States Marshals would raid these gambling houses and burn their equipment, but the next day they would be open again.

There were two hotels.  One was the Western Hotel, the other was Handeman's Hotel.  One could secure a room and three meals for a dollar a day.  These hotels were both frame buildings.

There were many wagon yards then as there are filling stations today.  The fee at the wagon yard was fifteen cents per day and the farmer fed his team.  The farmers usually brought their feed with them in their wagons.  If they wanted to stay all night, they were furnished a room with a stove in it, on which they  could cook at no extra charge.  Many of them had to spend the night.  They came form so far that it was impossible to make the return trip on the same day.  Some of them came a hundred miles in the Spring and again in the Fall.

There were three livery stables in town where one could rent teams and buggies and a driver if desired.

Mrs. Hunter ran a cafe and she served her meals family style.  She charged fifteen cents a meal and one  would get all he could eat.

I worked in a book store which was the only store of its kind in the Indian Territory at the time.  We sold sporting goods also.  Bill Murray was teaching school near Tishomingo and we sold him the books the needed.

In 1894, there was much cotton raised and marketed in Ardmore.  I remember one day that I climbed onto a wagon at the depot and walked three blocks on wagons loaded with cotton, without once getting down on the ground.

Hogs ran loose on the streets as there was no stock laws there and everybody who owned hogs turned them loose.  One man who was a shoe cobbler and made boots for cowboys, made more from the hogs which he turned loose on the Ardmore streets than he did from the boots he made.

Bradley printed a daily paper which was about six inches wide and eight inches long.  It was called "The Daily Advertiser".  He paid his printer eight dollars per week.

Farmers used to bring in quail and sell them for about 70 cents per dozen.  It was against the Chickasaw Indian law to trap or net quail.  They could kill them, but these were never brought in and sold alive.  They would ship these quail to Kansas City.

One day there was a wagon load of them at the depot ready to be shipped.  The United States Marshal confiscated them, hauled them to the country and turned them loose.

When Federal Court was in session, blanketed Indians would come to town from all over the Territory.  Judge Shackelford was the judge, and Judge Denny was the United States Commissioner.

Ardmore had a fire in 1896 which destroyed the whole business section.

I was married to Mary Russell in 1911.  She died and is buried in Ardmore.  I have been in Murray County for three years.

Transcribed by Dennis Muncrief,  December,  2000.