Chamber Chatter for October 10 - Debbe Ridley

No doubt about it! As the days of October tick off, in this fast-paced day and time, we all start thinking about the upcoming holiday season. Well, the Thanksgiving menu at least. But before you thaw that turkey out there’s a Chamber get-together on the calendar featuring another kind of great food.
Next Tuesday, October 15, Delta Sigma will be preparing their famous lasagna and all the fixings in the Lions’ Den. The sit-down meal is at noon, and take-outs are available beginning at 11:00 a.m. Tickets are $6 each and you can pick them up from members of Delta Sigma, Marlow Chamber Directors, and at the Chamber office. Delta Sigma fund raiser proceeds are put right back into the community for philanthropic projects.
When November rolls around, the first local holiday event happens when many local merchants kick things off for Christmas 2019. They’ll be hosting Christmas open houses on Sunday afternoon, November 3, and offering bargains and a taste of what unique gifts you can find right here in your own back yard. It’s a perfect opportunity to get out and about, visit with friends and neighbors, and support our community by shopping locally first. There’s a rumor there may even be some refreshments of the season to be found that afternoon.

We’ll continue this week with more from the October 3, 1929 article in the Marlow Review, penned by Dr. R.L. Montgomery, Marlow pioneer, and Mayor of Marlow at the time. It was written to commemorate the newspaper’s 37th year serving Marlow. “People would ride into town and hitch their horses to the trees on the streets. The pawing of the horses killed most of the timber on our thoroughfares. The still and brooding silence of the nights was often broken by the sharp report of a revolver which was a signal to the wet fraternity that a bootlegger was hiding in a nearby thicket ready to ply his nefarious avocation.”

“We were of course in the Indian Territory. We all came here just alike, all ‘broke.’ It was a poor man’s paradise. All were on a common level. There was no aristocracy of birth or wealth or of wisdom. The people were almost without exception honest. There was never any petty pilfering; that was brought to us in the wake of civilization.”

“When we get to writing about the earlier days we are too prone to forget our main subject, The Marlow Review. The first Marlow paper from which the Marlow Review descended was the Marlow Magnet, which was a little two sheet paper; the type was set by hand and the paper looked blotched and blurred.”

“There were various owners of the paper, among whom was R.E.L. McClain, who was a long, lank Texan. He ran the paper a few months, Mr. Lemons published it for several years. The paper was slowly improving during all of this time in news items, in editorial strength, and in advertising. W.B. Anthony began publishing it in about the year 1900, who by his personality, and spice and vigor of the editorials, and by better business management, gave the paper such force and vitality that it was rapidly pushed to the forefront of Oklahoma journalism.”

“While Mr. Anthony was serving the people as legislator, as private secretary to Governor Haskell, and on the commission for building the state capitol, Mr. N.G. Wallace managed and edited The Review. Mr. Wallace afterwards moved to Portland, Oregon, where he engaged in the practice of law, gained a great reputation, and has held several positions of honor and emolument including a district judgeship.”

And for one of those “Believe it or Not” moments you’ll find scattered around the Marlow Area Museum, did you know while that very same W. B. Anthony was serving as private secretary to Governor Haskell he was quite the game changer! Our own Mr. Anthony was the person who actually carried the great seal of the state of Oklahoma from the first state capital of Guthrie to our state capitol of Oklahoma City, which actually moved the location of the capitol along with it. From his obituary in the August 12, 1938 Daily Oklahoman: “Talking his way into the capitol, Anthony took his shirt out, with the seal and a couple of volumes of official records underneath. The next morning he opened the capitol in the Huskins hotel.” Is this a great state, or what!?!