Okemah Bombing
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Courtesy of Guy Mason, Okemah News Leader.
Okemah Daily Leader, Friday, April 21, 1961 reprint from Thursday, April 23, 1908

Terrific Blast Rocks Town From Slumber Saturday

Saturday night, between 11:30 and 12 o'clock, the inhabitants of Okemah in the vicinity of the Dexter House, were startled from their peaceful slumbers by a terrific explosion, which fairly shook the buildings and rattled the window panes ominously, causing the more nervous portion of the community to think that the crack of doom had indeed sounded, and that in surrendering themselves to the seductive charms of the drowsy goddess they had missed the first number on the program, Gabriel's little overture. There were others however, who seemed to know intuitively from what point the noise had proceeded, and they also soon jumped to an approximately correct conclusion as to the particular character of the discordant sound, and with a horrible picture in their minds of wrecked buildings, mangled remains and heartrending groans, they hastened to the rescue.

The objective point of the rescue party was the negro boarding house on West Broadway kept by Eddie King, and it did not take long for those who had arrived to ascertain that their surmises were correct, as to the nature of the disturbance, but the result was a considerable modification of the mental picture they had entertained. An attempt had been made to house, but the only marks the building bore of the explosion were broken window panes and a board which had been jarred loose. There were about a dozen inmates of the building who, instead of being scattered promiscuously around in fragmentary sections, they appeared very much intact, each one, in fact, being fast locked in the arms of Morpheus, and perfectly oblivious of the danger through which they had passed, and the ears of the onlookers, instead of being pierced with the piteous groans they had anticipated, were greeted with a chorus of resonant snores, more or less musical, as modified by the nasal formation of the sleeper; but in one respect there was perfect uniformity-they were all sound asleep. When the inmates of the building were finally awakened and told of the attempt that had been made to blow them up with dynamite some of them were greatly agitated, while others gave "lease go away" and let me sleep feeling.

There was no clue to the perpetrators of the deed.

At 6 o'clock Sunday evening an inmate of the boarding house, Tom Morgan, died suddenly of heart disease, to which he was subject. It is believed by some that the agitation caused by the attempt to wreck the building caused his death at that time.

Morgan belonged at Weleetka, having been arrested on a whisky charge and brought to this place for trial. He had been tried and acquitted.

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