Kirk released under heavy bond

-Sequoyah County Democrat, May25,1923

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the May 28,1998, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —The Sequoyah County Board of Commissioners tabled a decision on whether or not to transfer appropriations for the Election Board during their meeting Tuesday.

The transfer request first appeared on the meeting agenda for the previous meeting and was also tabled then in order to allow time for the commissioners to seek the advice of Jerry Moore, assistant district attorney.

Bruce Tabor, County Commissioner, District No. 1, told the board that the request for the transfer had come in a letter from Dorothy Harvell, secretary of the election board. The letter said the funds would be used to give two full-time employees at the election board raises.

Also speaking out on the proposed pay raises was Joetta Tyler of the Sequoyah County Excise Board.

Tyler addressed the board with her concerns about the pay raises.

“When I heard about the pay raises in the election board office, I went to my superior, as I thought I was supposed to do,” she told the commissioners.

She said, “I am now simply following the chain of command by coming and speaking to you, the commissioners. I realize money is tight and I don’t object to their raises, but I believe that we should also get one.”

Tyler said, “I am just making an official complaint within the chain of command. I have spoken with the state auditor’s office and while they told me that it was not illegal, they said it is not considered wise.”

50 Years Ago

(From the May 24, 1973, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Members of the Sallisaw Port Authority met Tuesday and agreed to submit an application to the Ozarks Regional Commission for funds to assist in providing for a developmental program for the authority to locate a port and industrial site here.

The members took the action as one of several proposals that were compiled after a fact-finding trip to Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

The development plan will look at alternative sites and costs for the development of those sites and will provide a base for a developmental plan for the final sites selections.

—The hearing in District Court in Sallisaw this week relating to the alleged irregularities during the April 3 municipal election in Vian has been postponed by newly appointed Judge Kenneth Hughes.

The alleged irregularities in the case were lodged by two men who claim numerous wrongdoings in the regular city election held in Vian on April 3.

—Dr. William Wilson, county medical examiner, has tentatively identified the skeletal remains found early this week as being those of Allen F. Thompson age 56 who has been missing since Dec. 5 of last year.

The remains were found Monday on the Reinhart Ranch near Muldrow by three workers at around 10:30 a.m.

Walter Eastep a ranch hand said he discovered the skeleton while plowing a field several hundred yards from the ranch house.

75 Years Ago

(From the May 28, 1948, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —E.W. Floyd, a candidate for the office of Sequoyah County sheriff on the Democratic ticket said in his formal statement to Your TIMES this week “I believe that a sheriff should conduct himself and his office in a sound, sincere, and gentleman-like way and if you elect me your sheriff, I will do that.”

Candidate Floyd stressed in his formal announcement that his record as a citizen of Sequoyah County and as a hard-working boy is good and “I don’t want to tear down in two years a record it has taken 40 years to build up.”

—Carol Acuff, R.N., county nurse will hold a typhoid clinic in Gore, Monday and Bluff School Wednesday, also Sallisaw at the county health office every Thursday and Saturday.

Typhoid fever is a serious infectious disease caused by a germ called the typhoid bacillus. The average duration of the illness is eight weeks. The health department of a community and the citizens working together can stamp out typhoid fever. This is proved by the fact that in 1939 there were no deaths from typhoid fever in 34 large cities located in various parts of the United States. However, each year about 20,000 persons in the United States and Canada have typhoid fever and 2,000 die of it.

100 years ago

(From the May 25, 1923, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —Jeff Kirk, self-confessed slayer of Mack Dodson, a Marble City youth, was released Monday under a $10,000 bond pending his plea to the criminal court of appeals for a new trial.

Mack Dodson was a youth about 19 years of age and was shot and instantly killed several weeks ago soon after darkness had set in. His body was found on one of the main streets of Marble City soon after the shot was fired.

Harry and Jeff Kirk, brothers, engaged in a fist fight on the day Dodson was killed and Dodson had separated them. Ill feeling had existed between Kirk and Dodson, it is said.

There were no powder marks on Dodson’s clothes and on this theory the state contended that Dodson was several feet away at the time he was killed. This piece of evidence, it is said caused Kirk to be convicted of first degree manslaughter.

—Kamelias have organized in this county.

Women Ku Kluxers have branch here according to a message to this office.

The Democrat received a communication Thursday morning stating that a branch of the Kort of Kamelia has been organized in this county and is operating under the laws of this state. The message was written on a local hotel’s notehead and reads as follows: A local Kort of Kamelia, a branch of the Krown Kort of Atlanta, Ga., is located in Sequoyah County and charted under the laws of the state of Oklahoma. The state headquarters are located in Tulsa, and the national headquarters may be located there, but at the present time are in Atlanta.

Kamelia is a fraternal, patriotic, beneficient order of white native-born American women which stands for white supremacy, tenets of Christian religion; separation of church and state; freedom of speech and press; protection of our free public school; Americanization of the mother; restriction of immigration; promotion of patriotism and chastity of women.

The Kamelias in this county will be watched with much interest, as their work, according to the daily press parallels with that of the Ku Klux Klan. Recently the head of the Klan at Atlanta issued a statement to the press, stating that the Kamelias were not in any way connected with the Ku Klux Klan, although a close relationship is believed to exist between those two secret organizations.