Governor of Oklahoma to be tried for bribery

This Week in County History

— Sequoyah County Democrat, Dec. 1,1922

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times 25 Years Ago

(From Nov. 30 and Dec. 4, 1997, issues of the Sequoyah County Times)

-The Sequoyah County Jail has new bed supports this week, after an inmate was stabbed recently with an instrument made from the old springs which supported the beds’ mattresses.

Walter Ross, Sequoyah County undersheriff, said the mattress supports on the jail beds were replaced last weekend.

“We replaced 27 bed springs, that were made from that old wire, last Saturday,” Ross said, “because they (some inmates) were making weapons out of them.”

The bed springs were replaced with 12-gauge metal sheets, at a cost of $1,192.50, taken from the county’s general fund.

—Blue Ribbons Down’s owners and operators hope to hear within 10 days from Wednesday whether or not the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma in Okmulgee will accept the Sallisaw racetrack’s bankruptcy plan.

The court accepted the ballots from Blue Ribbon Downs’ creditors Wednesday morning, said the track’s bankruptcy attorney Bob Inglish of Okmulgee.

In the bankruptcy proceedings Inglish explained, all those creditors to which Blue Ribbon Downs owes money voted, by mailed ballot, on whether or not they accepted the track’s bankruptcy plan.

50 Years Ago

(From the Nov. 30,1972, issue of the Sequoyah County Times)

—Three out-of-town men were being held early this week at the Sequoyah County jail following a Saturday night episode that left one local business with nearly $1,500 in damages.

Oklahoma Highway Patrolmen Skelton and B.L. Jacobs were traveling East on U.S. 64 Saturday night about 11 p.m. when a 1966 Chevrolet, driving west toward Sallisaw, swerved and nearly hit the patrol car. The troopers turned around and started pursuing the vehicle.

The Chevrolet did not stop and the troopers

SEE HISTORY, PAGE A7 called ahead to Sallisaw to have city law enforcement officers block the road to halt the car.

The car approached Sallisaw and evidently saw the police roadblock and pulled into Cotton’s Beverage. The car failed to stop and continued into the liquor store, causing nearly $1,500 in damages.

The Chevrolet drove through the front window at Cotton’s, damaging the windows and frames, door, and carpeting as well as destroying some merchandise on display at the establishment.

75 Years Ago

(From the Dec. 5, 1947, issue of the Sequoyah County Times)

—The Oklahoma State Highway Commission has granted contracts on two road jobs in Sequoyah County, a bulletin from Oklahoma City revealed this week.

One of the deals concerns grading, drainage and gravel surface of about seven and three-quarters of a mile of the farm to market road running north out of Vian.

The other improvement work involves the bridge crossing the Illinois River on U.S. 64 near Gore.

—A Sallisaw couple, married here 50 years ago and making their home here ever since, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last Friday your Sequoyah County Times was informed this week.

The couple, well-known throughout the area, are Mr. and Mrs. Jim Ross, he, 73, she an unashamed 68.

—For the first time since the war, the city of Sallisaw will be adorned with municipally- owned strings of colored lights, city manager Fred Johnston announced today.

Weather permitting, the lights should be hung and ready for everyone to enjoy by the end of this week, Johnston remarked.

Three strings of the lights will be installed along Front street, one string on Oak and another on Elm. They will be the same strings, with large metal stars directly in the center, that decorated Sallisaw downtown streets in prewar days.

100 years ago

(From the Dec. 1, 1922, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat)

—Gov. J.B.A. Robertson of Oklahoma was back at his desk today while his attorneys began shaping up the defense they will present to a jury when the executive goes to trial at Ada Dec. 12 on a charge of accepting a bribe.

Governor Robertson entered a formal plea of not guilty and the date for trial was set yesterday at Ada after Special Judge Thomas A. Edwards had overruled the defense’s demurrer to the indictment against the governor.

The indictment against the governor, returned by a district court judge in Okmulgee County on March 22, of this year, charges that he accepted a bribe to permit the Guaranty State Bank of Okmulgee to continue in operation after it had become insolvent.

Fred Dennis, former state bank commissioner, who is now a fugitive, was jointly indicted with Governor Robertson.

—The First National Bank in Sallisaw has just purchased and installed the largest thermometer ever seen in Sallisaw and has hung it near the north stairway entrance to their building on Cherokee Avenue. The thermometer is surrounded by neat and attractive ads of various mercantile houses in Sallisaw. It also contains a weather chart and gauge and will prove most valuable instrument for travelers on the Albert Pike highway, as well as for local people. The instrument is gotten up in most attractive style and adds materially to the general appearance of the building, aside from its untold value to the general public.

—The safe of Wheeler Lumber company was robbed by unknown parties early Sunday morning and $60 in currency and a check for $1,000 taken. The safe breakers entered the office of the lumber company via a window and used some carpenters tools that were in the office to pick their way into the vault which contained the cash.

The robbery was not discovered until Sunday about noon at which time R. Kobel, the manager had gone to his office to get his mail. On investigating Mr. Kobel found that all of the currency, silver, cash tickets and checks had been taken. The thieves have in their possession or destroyed a check for $1,000. Of course, they will have very little luck in cashing such a check.

Night Patrolman Chuculate placed under arrest a suspicious looking character early Sunday morning who had in his possession money which tallied with the description of that taken from the lumber company safe and he was lodged in the jail for investigation, but was released Sunday morning before the robbery had been discovered at the Wheeler lumber company. The man placed under arrest gave his name as Homer Cox of Chicago and with two other companions had been hanging around the Iron Mountain depot during the night waiting for a freight that would carry them north.