Sallisaw dentist taken in hand by federal officers

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the April 30,2000, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) — A land donation to the Sequoyah’s Home site, 11 miles northeast of Sallisaw, makes the popular attraction the third largest historical site in the state, Steve Foster, site manager, said Thursday.

Foster said descendants of the Blair family, which purchased the property from Sequoyah’s widow, Sally, donated about 170 acres surrounding the historic site in November. The state took possession of the property on Jan. 1 because the property was leased to a third party through 1999.

Foster said, Dr. Thomas E. Matheson from Pineville, Ore., donated the land which adjoins the 10-acre historical site on the south, west and north sides.

Dr. Matheson is a descendant of Pearl Blair who was the first caretaker of the site, beginning in 1936. “The Blairs were the ones who donated the original site,” Foster said. “Dr. Matheson was the one who donated the log cabins to the 14 Flags Heritage Club.” One of those cabins now stands at the 14 Flags Heritage Club’s museum site in downtown Sallisaw.

50 Years Ago

(From the May 1,1975, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —An irritated Max Newman, sheriff of Sequoyah County, took a state crime investigative agency to task Monday for interfering in business being conducted by his department.

According to Newman his deputies had a field of freshly planted marijuana under observation for about two weeks, intending to make arrests when the plants got a little larger and the young men involved could be caught in the act of harvesting their illegal crop.

However, word apparently got to a state investigative agency. Newman isn’t certain which one, and the agents went to the wooded field north of Roland Friday, and took a number of photographs.

The young suspects learned their crop had been discovered and so left.

Newman, angry that he had not been consulted by the state agents, asserted that any authorities investigating crime in the county are obligated to contact him.

75 Years Ago

(From the May 5,1950, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Sallisaw will be visited by a duplicate of the original Liberty Bell during the U.S. Treasury’s Independence Drive for savings bonds, it was announced here Thursday.

The date the replica will be here has been set for May 27.

The duplicate is exact in size, shape and appearance, and has been scientifically cast so as to recapture the true voice of the original before it cracked.

100 years ago

(From the May 1,1925, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —Dr. J.E. Ice, a widely known Sallisaw dentist and local republican politician was arrested Tuesday morning, charged with failure to keep proper narcotic record and dispensing morphine other than in course of his professional practice.

The arrest was made by Special Narcotic Officer, E.H. Staley and Deputy U.S. Marshal J. Fuller of Muskogee, following the arrest Saturday night of Jess Palmer, a drug addict who was arrested by Night Patrolman Chuculate and Chief of Police J.C. Woll, after the street scene in Quesenbury addition. The local officers found 21 grains of morphine and 18 grains of cocaine in a sweater said to have belonged to Palmer hidden at the Liberty school house.

Ice entered a plea of not guilty before U.S. Commissioner J.W. Breedlove and was released under $2,500.00 bond. The bond was quickly made by the friends of the doctor and Judge Breedlove set the preliminary hearing for May 7. Frye and Frye, local attorneys have been employed by Dr. Ice.

Dr. Ice has been prominently identified with republican politics in this county. Two years ago he was the republican candidate for state representative and was nominated by the republicans at the last primary, after he had officially notified the republicans in this county that he had withdrawn from the race.

—Perry Chculate, night patrolman on the local police force, was called to Okmulgee last week to identify two alleged car thieves being held there by the sheriff’s office. He went there on Thursday, returning Friday. The men held are Conwell Hodge and Vilva Southwick and Officer Chuculate identified them as two men whom he halted here last December enroute to Arkansas. Both men reside at Okmulgee and both are charged with having stolen five automobiles. When they were halted here last winter, they carried a small calibre pistol but gave the names of several Sallisaw men whom they knew, and they were permitted to go on their way. The Okmulgee officers believe that they have a perfect chain of evidence and that the men will be easily convicted. Officer Chuculate’s evidence and identification proved to be of great value in the chain of evidence.