Jail-civil defense center planned

-Sequoyah County Times, Nov. 8,1973

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the Nov. 8, 1998, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —The Sequoyah County 911 Trust responded Friday to Sheriff Johnny Philpot’s concerns about the county’s 911 system.

The sheriff maintains that he will not give his okay to put the system on-line until the system can provide his dispatchers with adequate information.

It is the responsibility of the dispatchers to relay information, and if the information is not there, they can’t do their job, Philpot said.

The information, or lack of information, displayed to the dispatchers seems to be at the crux of the problem in getting the 911 system online.

50 Years Ago

(From the Nov. 8, 1973, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Sequoyah County’s Commissioners Monday announced a major $200,000 project to replace the county jail facility that has been in need of repair for some time.

The new jail is to be located in the southeast corner of the existing county courthouse and will measure 35 feet by 80 feet long.

The structure will be built with the bottom floor being underground, the location of the newly proposed Civil Defense Emergency Operating Center (EOC) the sheriff’s office and other offices.

Included in the bottom floor will be the sheriff’s office, a deputy’s office, communications room, civil defense room, a meeting room and a kitchen.

The facility will be served by an elevator with one opening to be made on the second floor of the present courthouse to open into the second floor lobby.

75 Years Ago

(From the Nov. 5, 1948, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) -Thirty-two eastern Oklahoma communities have had 10 or more housing project commitments since February 1948, a Federal Housing administration report revealed this week.

The report indicated the points of greatest activity during the year, said Julian Rothbaum, Tulsa, director of the FHA’s eastern Oklahoma district of 30 counties. The list includes Sallisaw.

—George and Emily Edmonds of Alameda, Calif., hold the winning ticket in the “Baby Sweepstakes.”

George is a Sequoyah County boy born in Vian. Emily is his war bride of English descent. After the war they made their home on the West Coast.

For in the birth of their second set of twins in Alameda hospital, Oct. 28, the same date their first set was born two years ago, they gave birth statistics an awful walloping.

The birth of one set of twins occurs only once in about every 300 births and the odds are astronomical on a couple having consecutive sets.

And what’s more, the twins born, Oct. 28 are boys, just like the first set, and they weighed in at exactly the same poundage their brothers did, 4 pounds 13 ounces and 6 pounds and 9 ounces.

But the Edmonds weren’t worrying about figures. They were too busy being happy “You can’t tell me that lighting doesn’t strike twice,” the husband, a 28-year-old carpenter, declared.

His wife, a 30-year-old English girl whom Edmonds met while serving as an Army private in England during World War II, “just couldn’t believe it.”

Edmonds was educated at Vian and Connors college. He enlisted in 1943 and served overseas with the Air Corps. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Edmonds, former Vian residents, now live in California.

100 years ago

(From the Nov. 9, 1923, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —Roy Foster and John Anderson, two of the four men who escaped from the county jail early Monday evening were apprehended during the week and now in the county jail. The two other jail breakers are at liberty but their arrest is expected at any time.

The escape of the four prisoners was made known by Frank Russell, a local youth, who noticed the prisoners coming down the blanket rope from the third story of the courthouse and immediately took steps to notify J.C. Woll, chief of police. The officials were only a few minutes behind the escaped men, but they were aided by darkness and made good their escape for the night.

The four men who took part in the daring jail delivery were Roy Foster, John Anderson, George Freeman and Herbert Mooney, four bad criminals, according to the officials.

Anderson was apprehended Tuesday afternoon at Mershon community three miles east of Sallisaw. He was badly injured around the hip, which he sustained from a thirtyfoot fall when coming down the blanket ropes. Anderson during his daring break for liberty had lost his shoes in the mud and was barefoot when caught. His feet were in bad condition. He is now under a physician’s care in the county jail. The sheriff’s force was able to obtain several interesting details from Anderson about the jail break. He stated that Freeman and Mooney were the first to go out and they landed safely on the ground, but Foster, the third man while going down the blanket rope fell about thirty feet when the rope broke. Anderson started when he was going down the rope and he did not know that the rope had broken and when he reached the end he had to fall, as he could not scale the rope back to the jail.