Heat influenced the month of August. A thermometer in the shade on an Elk City back porch registered 112 degrees; the Main St. brick pavement was so hot, you could smell the car tires melting. The Elk City Natatorium provided swimming for fifteen cents ($2.63 in today’s values).
The sudden death of President Warren G. Harding shocked the entire country! Upon Harding’s passing, Vice President Calvin Coolidge, became President. In Elk City, the Baptist Church was the site of a memorial service.
Elk City was among the 260 places in Oklahoma where fiery crosses were erected; the state officials of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan announced it was the signal of a state-wide drive against lawlessness and a memorial to former President Harding. The fiery cross was placed on the highest point along the road and could be seen from afar. Things were noticeably quiet in and around Elk City all that night.
One of the biggest rains since spring fell near the end of the month. It began about 6 p.m. and rained steadily until 10 the next morning. The rain came too late to benefit the growing crops but helped cotton and feed and made the ground ideal for fall wheat sowing. It was worth millions of dollars to Western Oklahoma!
Roy Price, manager of Economy Products Co. in Elk City, made a small batch of potato chips. His patrons liked the chips so well that he was busy wholesaling to nearly every merchant in town. The chip factory was in the Maddox block on Main Street. Next door, M. Z. King let a contract for a new two-story brick block 25x80 feet for a first-class dry goods store with upstairs offices.
A new copper still especially made to fit a four-burner oil stove, was captured on the farm of Isom Saffol, four miles south of Elk City. Two barrels of mash were found locked in the cellar, and the still was found in the alley behind the house. Deputy Sheriff George Scott and State Enforcement Officer, Luther D. Skelton captured four barrels of choice beer in a raid at Sayre. The barrels were dumped on Main Street where the contents trickled down the pavement.
Mrs. W. B. Tucker was buying vegetables from a wagon in Sayre when she was accidentally struck by a car driven by Rev. A. C. Bryan, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Grandfield. Rev. Bryan was driving slowly, but Mrs. Tucker stepped backward into the street when the car hit her, throwing her onto the pavement and crushing her skull. Rev. Bryan was prostrated over the accident.
One of the most brutal crimes ever committed in Beckham County occurred late in the month in South Sayre, the new “rag” town just recently opened south of the Red River Bridge. J. T. Adkins, a driller employed on the Lewis-Pringle well, was beaten to death. The details concerning the affair were sketchy and an assailant was not immediately apprehended. Adkins’ body was found in a pasture south of the river. A coroner’s panel brought in a verdict of “killed with some blunt instrument, in a mysterious manner.” While several arrests were made, the facts seemed to indicate that the death was the result of a drunken brawl between all parties. The shack in which the affair occurred was badly damaged, all the windows broken, and the furniture smashed.
The Stephen boys, Frank and Zerl Denton, Mr. Hawk and Mr. Randle treated Carter folks to a chicken fry at the oil well near town. Rexall provided a packer of lemon ice cream and John C. Mackenzie, some of the fourteen chickens furnished for the fry. About 30 people went after those birds “like Simpsons hounds go after a coyote just after a big rain.” Just as Frank Denton helped himself to the last of the ice cream in the can and took his seat on a comfy stump, Evans Stephens set a toad in the middle of the ice cream. Since there wasn’t any more ice cream, Frank ate it--the ice cream, not the toad.
Luanne R. Eisler authored this article, which was taken from items published in The Carter Express, The Elk City Press and The Elk City News-Democrat; these newspapers can be found on microfilm at the Elk City Carnegie Library; https://www.dollartimes. com provided supplementary information.
