Sequoyah stunned by church edict to close Dwight Mission school

This Week in County History

-Sequoyah County Times, May 7 ,1948

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the May 7,1998, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —A freak accident following the finish of a schooling race Friday at Blue Ribbon Downs claimed the life of a female jockey.

Kemberly Stogner, 36, of Wanette was killed when the horse she was riding attempted to go over the inside rail of the racetrack. The accident occurred at the end of the second schooling race at about 12:45 p.m.

Rick Jerman, Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission (OHRC) law enforcement agent assigned to Blue Ribbon downs, said, “The horse made a half-hearted attempt to jump the inside rail. He hit his left leg on the perpendicular pole which supports the rail and it broke his leg. The horse bounced off the rail, hitting his head. The jockey was thrown and hit the rail in her head and throat area.

50 Years Ago

(From the May 3,1973, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —The Tuesday morning court hearing that erupted from several allocations that the Vian Municipal Election held on May 3 was illegal, lasted only a few minutes, as Associate District Judge Bill Ed Rogers disqualified himself from further hearing the case.

Rogers opened the hearing at 10 a.m. in the district courtroom at the courthouse, with representatives of the county election board, Jerry Franks and Don Brockman, present. Paul Carlile, assistant district attorney, represented the election board.

Sallisaw attorney Harry Scoufos was present in behalf of the plaintiffs, Dan Pruitt and William Smith.

—Three youthful people walked into Tell-Star Family Center in Sallisaw Monday night and helped themselves

SEE to around $150 from one of the cash registers and left, a spokesman for the Sallisaw Police Department reported this week.

Patrolman Earnest Vaughan said the three, two men and a woman, entered the store at 7:35 p.m. and walked up to one of the cash registers. No weapons were used in the incident.

75 Years Ago

(From the May 7, 1948, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Sam Kendrix of Vian told Muskogee police Tuesday that he was robbed of $40 by hijackers Monday night, beaten unconscious and left naked in a roadside ditch near Davis Field until early Tuesday.

The 30-year old victim said that after he came to, he wandered across the airfield and found his way to Harry Ashworth’s house. He was attacked shortly after midnight, he said, and didn’t regain consciousness until about 4 a.m. He was hit with blackjacks, he told officers.

In addition to all of his clothes, he was robbed of two $10 bills, two $5s and ten $1s.

—About two weeks ago, the road leading from Gore to Tenkiller damsite, a distance of about seven and one-half miles, was graveled and made into an “all-weather” road, a Tenkiller engineer reported to Your TIMES.

Plans are to oil the road this summer and later, according to the engineer, it will be blacktopped.

—Sequoyah County received stunning news this week when it was announced by Dr. W.M. Griffin, director in charge of famed Dwight Mission school, the recognized birthplace of education in Oklahoma, that the board of missions, Presbyterian churches of the U.S.A. have voted to close the institution permanently and dispose of the property.

Originally Dwight Mission served only Cherokee Indians but in recent years it has also served the underprivileged children of several Indian tribes in eastern Oklahoma who have been keenly interested in schools offering religious education.

Dr. Griffin reported that when the mission is officially closed, present staff members will be given posts in other national mission schools operated by the Presbyterians.

100 years ago

(From the May 4, 1923, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —A still made out of a water bucket and coal oil can was captured recently by the sheriff’s force and it has been on display at the sheriff’s office this week. The outfit was a crude one and probably before the coal oil can was taken as part of the still by the moonshine it was used to carry oil from his grocer to his home. Such stills are the kind that make poison whiskey. If such stilling outfits could be seen by the public there would be less “moonshine drinking.”

—Carl Morris, formerly Oklahoma’s aspirant for the heavy weight championship in pugilistic circles, has fallen to a low level and is now occupying a cell in the county jail in this city convicted of carrying concealed weapons and also facing a federal charge of passing bogus money.

Morris, in company with J.M. Lemon of Sapulpa, who is said to have police record in that city, stopped over at Vian, in this county, Monday, where they arrived in an auto on their way to the Smackover oil fields in Arkansas and after partaking of a meal in a restaurant gave the proprietor a “split” ten dollar bill in payment of their bill. The restaurant man could not make the proper change so went out to have the bill changed when it was discovered that the bill was of the “split” variety; the front of a ten dollar bill built up at the back with paper. Morris and his companion were arrested by the local officers of Vian, who telephoned the circumstances of the arrest to the sheriff’s office in this city and Undersheriff Cotton and Deputy Sheriff Roy Cheek immediately left to get the men and lodged them in the county jail, charged with carrying concealed weapons and passing bogus money.