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8/3/2019 Enid: One of Oklahoma's Fairest and Most Progressive Cities http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/enid-one-of-oklahomas-fairest-and-most-progressive-cities 1/4 One of Oklahoma's Fairest E N I D and Most Progressive Cities By J. H. McKIDDY, for the Enid Chamber of Commerce Convention Hall, Enid, Okla. M ARVELS cast their reflections to all the world since the white ma,n came to Oklahoma to help the Indian build a community in modern ways. The easterner who makes a trip to the Southwest always changes his mind about the "wild stories of the wild country." H e takes a message back home that wonder- ful things have happened in Oklahoma since statehood in 1907. Magnificent, modern homes have taken the place of wigwams and adobe houses ; oil derricks almost take a place for every tree; broad, fertile plains of flowing grain and green pastures inhabited by pure- blood stock are now seen instead of the sand wastes; large business houses rear skyward in many cities which once were only small hamlets ; cosmopolitan population vies to make the state's hospitality felt to the far cor- nevc. they- i~ .xrnnrl~rfsrlnmnnop i n i t 111 ~ n r t thrill the record of Enid, thirty years ago a vast, fertile country where only the Indian and an occasional cattle man roamed. The story of Enid, Okla., is beautiful in itself, one that would make a book filled with struggles, romance with thrills to keep the reader interested. In its ro- mance those who came to the barren country in the early days now look upon it with a mighty degree of pride when they see a city of 25,000 in all its modern facilities in contrast to the picture just three decades ago. In struggles, each pioneer has his own narrative that is always interesting to posterity. The fruits of their struggles are in "The City Beautiful," a nainc which has been applied to Enid. Back before the year 1893, Uncle Sam owned a ctrin nf Ignrl in filrl lhn nls rich in cnil halt nnn-nrn-
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Enid: One of Oklahoma's Fairest and Most Progressive Cities

Apr 07, 2018

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Page 1: Enid:  One of Oklahoma's Fairest and Most Progressive Cities

8/3/2019 Enid: One of Oklahoma's Fairest and Most Progressive Cities

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/enid-one-of-oklahomas-fairest-and-most-progressive-cities 1/4

One of Oklahoma's FairestE N I D and Most Progressive CitiesBy J. H. McKIDDY, for the Enid Chamber of Commerce

Convention Hall, Enid, Okla.

MARVELS cast their reflections to all the worldsince the white ma,n came to Oklahoma to help

the Indian build a community in modern ways. Theeasterner who makes a trip to the Southwest alwayschanges his mind about the "wild stories of the wildcountry." H e takes a message back home that wonder-ful things have happened in Oklahoma since statehoodin 1907. Magnificent, modern homes have taken theplace of wigwams and adobe houses ; oil derricks almosttake a place for every tr ee; broad, fertile plains offlowing grain and green pastures inhabited by pure-blood stock are now seen instead of the sand wastes;large business houses rear skyward in many cities whichonce were only small hamlets ; cosmopolitan populationvies to make the state's hospitality felt to the far cor-nevc. they- i~ .xrnnrl~rfsrl nmnnop i n i t 111 ~ n r t thrill

the record of Enid, thirty years ago a vast, fertilecountry where only the Indian and an occasional cattleman roamed.

The story of Enid , Okla., is beautiful in itself, onethat would make a book filled with struggles, romancewith thril ls to keep the reader interested. In its ro-mance those who came to the barren country in theearly days now look upon it with a mighty degree ofpride when they see a city of 25,000 in all its modernfacilities in contrast to the picture just three decadesago. In struggles, each pioneer has his own narrativetha t is always interesting to posterity. The fru its oftheir struggles are in "The City Beautiful," a naincwhich has been applied to Enid.

Back before the year 1893, Uncle Sam owned actrin n f Ignrl in filrl lhn nls rich in cnil halt nnn-nrn-

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September, 1924 jr4FZco ~ N P L O Y E ~ ~ Z I N E Page 5

part of Oklahonla to inhabit the Cherokee Strip.

T he name Enid is of Celtic origin, meaning thesoul in its broad er sense. W it h such an inspiring namethe pioneers set out to put their souls in the work ofmaking a city ou t of the land of "notliing." H ow

they struggled is still upon the lips of a11 who yet liveto tell of those days o i hardships and thrills.

While not a pioneer railroad into Enid, the St. Louisand San Francisco Railway was not long in seeing theadvantages of a line to this region. Prosperity of thecountry has helped the road to expand and becoine alarge factor in the transportation system of North-western Oklahoma. Its growth is shown in the re-sume of its present operations. A t the Enid stationan average of620 men are employed yearly,175 train-men, 285 in shops,45 on sections,50 in the switching

service and 65 in the clerical division. T he averagemonthly payroll is$!N,000, r $1,080,000 per annum,nearly 5)0p& cent ofthe wages remainingin Enid. Thecar de-partment rebuilt344c ar s i n 1-3. T heroad operates t e npassenger trains andfifteen freight trainsdaily.

Rising from a fewhulidred inhabitantsto a mo dern city wasaccomplished o n lyby vision, that far-sightedness s o m emen possess a n cl

Judge Garber moved to Enid and set about in his partas a town builder.

A. P,. "Pat" Wilcox, vice-presidentof the CentralNational Bank of Enid,is known as Enid's first man.H e came on ahead of all to set up a postal station.

J. D. Minton, insurance agent, is known to haveaided in the city's growth. Cred it for Enid's possess-ing an abundant water supply of snow water that per-colates from the Rocky Mountains, more than!% percent pure, goes to the late Newton Burwell, who foughtfor a deep well system instead of damming up "somepond," a s he termed it.

0. J. Fleming, another banker coming later,w a ione who believed the prairie town had possibilitiescffa city.

Of the pioneer merchants the story must includeJoe

Meicbergen and Marinus Godschalk, who set up in busi-ness inm ediately afte r the "run." Only one other

Sky l ine of

work unceasingly until the task is complete.In tha trespect the city was fortunate from the beginning andwa s augmented by those who were pioneers and camein later for a somewhat unpraised part.

Since much is due them for their work, these menwho w r k e d Imrd all day and burned coal oil lampslate at night to plan something larger the next day,week or year, it would notbe amiss to mention someof them, not forgettin g some who remained in the back-groun d and had an indirect part-it would take manypages to name them all:

Judge Milton C. Garber, once United States Judge in'I'heodore Roosevelt's administration, and now con-gressman from the Eighth District of Oklahoma, lo-cated in 1893 at what is now Garber, Okla.,20 milesto the east of Enid, county seat of Garfield County.With his brother, Bert, he aided many in their firsthaid strugg les by "carrying" them to wh ere they couldsay their heads were above water. A few years later,

Enid, Okla.

store was in opera-tion then, that of F.W. Buttrey.

Those who claima wide degree of

financial wisdom tell4:ou very few citiesprosper unless i ndebt, and in this re-spect Enid acquiredthe bonded indebted-ness habit early.There was need forpaving, fire protec-tion, schools a n dsuch things that no

city can Iong do without. Eve n during the war whenbuilding in most cities af the state subsided and bondswere not marketable, Enid kept right on and had notrouble disposing of securities at a good commerciarate.

Along in 1 918 before Am erica had any idea of thewar ending that year, the people of Enid and GarfieldCounty began to think of some manner to remembethe boys who fought and gave their lives in the country's honor. Memorial shafts , trees and other thingwere proposed. Judge Ga rber; who then was mayorand his commissioner aides,G : W. Pancoast and Jas.W. Butts, decided to propose a bond issue to thepeo-ple and erect som e kind of a building.A public gather-ing place was needed more than anything else, the!said. Consequently the next year bonds were voted tconstruct a convention hall. O ne block from the busi-ness square there now stands a four-story' buildingcovering nearly half a block, built at a costaf one-

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iigh-class New Y)resented, such as6 - T. 7

Koo," Field's Min~e ingmade for sirng fall and winte...- A. .

half n~illion ollars. It has a seating capacity of 5,000,the largest in Oklahoma, it is said, and no one has dis-puted it. Since the building has been completed, numer-ous conventions of various trades and professions ofthe state have been held in Enid, besides a nunlber of1 ork dramatic pr~luctioi~s ave been

1 ; "The Bat," 'The White Peacock,"'. r ne Bronze woman," "Up in the Clouds," "HitchyI strels and others. Eookings arc now1 nilar procluctions to appear this com-I r.

'lme Chanlber of Commerce with 750 live menibershas its offices in Convention Hall, all its departments

gs, the otherbeen erected

c Temple, amagnificentA m e r i c a n nati onal BanK rrul ~aing, lgnt stories high.followed closely a f -ter decision to con-s t r u c t ConventionHall. In fact, sincethe decision to buildthe h a 1 1, buildingtook on an unprece-dented impetus. Fine

residences and busi-ness buildings areconstantly going upin keeping with thebusiness growth.

Other things thatadd to the pace ofgrowth a r e goodroads. While Enid

dustries a city must have streams. Yet in this prairietown many miles from any river industry in manyphases has cast its lot here and prospered.

To give a n idea of what the city owns and of it.

wealth, along with that of the county, the followingresume is srrbjoined in brief:

Enid is in almost the geographical center of GarfieldCounty and has a population of 25,000, almost all white.

Enid has more railroads than any other city of itssize in the United States.

Enid has the finest high school building of any cityof its size in the United States .

Enid is the largcst retail poultry market in the UnitedStates.

Enid has the finest Convention Hall, the most mod-

ern in architecture, complete in detail and equipment,and its auditoriun~ has the largest seating capacity ofany city in the State of Oklahoma.

Enid's power plant supplies electric current to more

Masonic Temple, mid, O k l a .

is on the Meridian Highway, the Albert Pike Highwayand the Abe Pass Highway, t k county is keeping tip

its part with federal aid, and is constructing hard-sur-face roads every year in four directions from thc city.There is no indebtedness On these roads, a certain levybeing set aside every year by the county coniinissionersfor construction. The county is free from debt, whilethe city is making rapid s trides to get on top of itsburden, including indebtedness of a disposal plant anda wonderful waterworks system.

Everyone wlw visits Enid agrees the .city has beenrightly named the "City Beautiful." Back long agothe vision of those who held the city reins of govern-ment took on the idea of beauty. Instead of narrowstreets, they were made broad with pleasing avenues oftrees. I n the same vision parks were incladed, andthe city boasts of twelve playgrounds for its populace.

There has always been an old "saw" that to have in-

villages, towns andcities outside of Enidthan does any otherelectric power plantfrom any other cityin the state. Namesof towns supplied :

aukc chis, B i s o n.

Hennessey, Dover,Watonga, G e a r y,Fairmont, Coving-ton, Oil Fields, Gar-her, Hunt er, Lamontand Billings ; total,thirteen ; and in sodoing requires 179.79miles of transmis-

sion h e s and 89 employes to operate the system, with aniontllly payroll of $13,850.

Enid has six baldis, five national and one state, andin volume of business ranks fourth among the cities ofOklahoma, and ranks twelfth in volume of bankingbusiness in the Tenth Federal Reserve District in whichdistrict are the cities of Kansas City, Mo.; Omaha,Neb. ; Denver, Colo. ; Tulsa, Okla. ; Topeka, Kans. ;

Oklahoma City, Okla.; Wichita, Kans.; Kansas City,Kans. ; Pueblo, Colo. ; Lincoln, Neb. ; St. Joseph andJoplin, Mo.

Enid city mail service: l'otal number of arrivalsand departures of mail trains every twenty-four hours,

40; total number of employes required to handle theEnid mail, 5 5 ; total monthly payroll of same, $9,-749.70; total receipts fo r the year ending December 31,1922, $100,60!2.92, a gain of $4,298.40 over the previousyear, 1921. (Confinusd on page 14 . )

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Page 1 4

ENID(Continued from page 6.j

Entd has two flour mills with atota l cap acit y of 1,500 bar rel s of flourdaily, and for the current year of 1922bought wheat in wagon lots totaling132,144 bu she ls; In ca r lots , 1,289,953bushels; shipped out total cars ofwheat, 616; total cars of mill products

shipped ou t, 780; bushels of whe atgr oun d, 828,110; barr els of flourground, 180,433.

Enid has four wholesale grocerystores that are represented by a totalof 41 traveling salesmen, wh o coveral l the western half of Oklahoma, agood portion of Northern and North-western Texas, a large portion ofSouthern and Southwestern Kansas.or a total are a of territory larger tha nthe ent ire St ate of Oklahoma or Kan-sas. These four wholesale groceryfirms have a total of 4,050 cnstomersthroughout their trade territory.

Enid has ingress and egress by rail

in ten different ways and directions.Enid oil territory produces the fin-est crude oil found anywhere in theUnited St ates, except in Pennsylvania.It stands the highest test and sells inth e market for more money by th ebarrel.

Statistics for 1922 show a total pro-duction of 9,490.000 barrels; cash ralueof same, $21,352,500; four refineries inEnid; total cash- nvested in same, In-cluding pipe lines, $3,250,000; totalnumber of employes required to oper-ate same, who live here in Enid andreceive their pay checks in Enld, 450;total amount monthly payroll for em-ployes. $67,500; total number of carsof petroleum of1 and by-productsshipped from Enid during 1922, 19,-200; total value of same, $12,480.000;total number of tank cars used forshipping oil and gasolin e out of Enid,1.600.

Enid is known to be the "wheatcenter of the Southu7est." a n d 1s alsoknown to be the "present best wheatmar ket in the Southwest." To givethe total number of carloads of wheator the total number of bushels ofwheat handled at Enid in the year of1922 would not only Be a herculeantask, but would be a l n~ os t r qui te anImpossible task. However, there ar e

nineteen different firms in Enid whoseexclusive business is buying and sell-ing grai n a t wholesale. Two of thesefirms during the year 1922 handled5,147 carlo ts or an a gg reg at e of 6,176,-588 bushels.

%Id is th e metrop olitan city ofNorthw estern Oklahoma. No citywithin a hundred miles of here Is acompetitor. People ar e drawn her eto tr ade from djstanc es of 100 tnilesover fine natural and modern pavedroads which radiate from our citylike the spokes of a wheel. Line s oft rucks dis t r ibute merchandise f romour wholesale houses to the countryretail deale rs regularly and almost to

the exclusion of railway distribution.Enid has five wholesate firms thathandle poultry, eggs, cream, butterand milk. They employ a total aver-age of 160 assistants, with a total

monthly payroll of $16,000, and theirtotal volume of business for the year1922 was approximately $3,500,000.

Enld has four industries, namely,refineries, electric power plant, poul-try, egg and cream companies, andthe railroad companies, that requirean average of 1,504 employes to con-duct their business, with an average

mon thly payroll of $241,350, o r a t ot alpayr oll of $2,896,200 for th e ye ar 1922.Enid city water is second to none

on earth and its supply is unlimited.i t Is soft snow water from the RockyMountains, percolating as i t doesthrough a substrat a of san d, sn d issupplied to the city from a system ofwells dlrectly into the water mainswithout being exposed to daylight nn-ti1 it passes through the faucet. It h asbeen chemically tested a number oftimes and demonstrated to be morenearly perfectly pure than bottledmilk.

Enid h as thirty-eight miles of pavedstreets wi thin the corporate l imits ;sanitary sewer, 42 miles; stormsewers, 32 mlles, and water mains,63 miles.

Enid f a a n Ideal city for commercialpurposes, tlnd is without doubt thebest in the state In which to make ahome and rear a family, there beingtwenty-five churches of different de-nominations, with a total enrollmentof 9.340 members; average Sundayschool attendance, 4,732; and totalvalue or church property, $836,705.

Enid city public schools have a to-t a l e ~ ~ r o l l m e u t f 4,222 pupils, and atota l of 146 teac hers , who receive a nav er ag e mon thly payro ll of $16,000.

Enid city's St. Joseph Inst itute(Catholic) has a total number of pu-pils enrolled, in grade, 198; in highschool, 5'1, and employs nine teachers.

Enid city has nine two-story per-fectly modern brick ward public schoolbuildings, besides its present highschool bulIding and two other juniorhigh school buildings. now almostcom plet ed, a t a c ost of $114,000 and$62,000. respectively.

Phi l l ips Univers i ty a t Enid has es-qnisitely beautiful buildings a n dgrounds, entirely adequate, and has ato tal en roll men t of 1,157 pupils, dls-tributed a s follows:

City of Enid, 587; Garfield County,70; total from 47 other counties inOklahoma, 51s; besides from the out-side 19 sta tes of A rizona, Arkans as,California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa.Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michi-gan. Mississippi, Missouri. Nebraska.New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania andTex as. 182-making th e to tal of 1.157.Phillips University enlployes 41 teach-ers, with a n average monthly payrollof $6,150.

Some Fuel Records

(Continued from page 10.)duly 9th-Engine 29, trai n 136, Carbon

Hill to Amory, Engineer Cook,Conductor Keenan, 124,8113 GrossTon Miles, consumed 5 tons ofcoal or 80 pounds per 1,000 G.T. R I .

May 1st-Engine 798, ext ra nort h.Ft. Worth to Sherman. 'EngineerWyatt, Fireman Crain, 121,582Gross Ton Miles, used 1,346 gal-lons of oil, equivalent to 122pounds OI coal p er 1,000 G. T. M.

May 8th-Engine 741. ex tr a sou th.Sherman to Ft . Worth, EngineerWyatt, Fireman Crain, 97,280Gross Ton Miles, 988 galtons of

oil equivalent to 122 pounds ofcoal per 1,000 G . T. M.J un e 3rd-Engine 1,028, 2nd 106, Bir-

mingham to Amory, Engineer Mc-Gowan, Fireman Hollowell, 1,195passenger car miles, consumed 6tons of coal or 10 pounds pe r pas-senger car mile.

Ju ne 4th-Engine 1,060, tra in 105,Holly Springs to Amory, En-gineer Reese, Fireman Prue tt, 820passenger ca r miles, consumed 4ton s of co al or 9.6 po unds pe r pas-senger car mile.

Jul y 1st-Englne 698, ex tr a sout h,Jonesboro to Harvard, EngineerRower, Fireman Judkin, 92,508Gross Ton Miles, 4,800 pounds ofcoal or 51.5 pounds per 1,000 G.T. M.

Jun e 19th-Engine 712, extr a south,Joneshoro to Harvard, EngineerFisher, Fireman Millman, 98,329Gross Ton Miles, used 6,300pou nds of coal o r 64 poun ds pe r1,000 0 . T. 31.-ow to Treat Your Railroad

AgentR. C . Sauk. Agent. Elsmore, Mo.

Don't talk ab out him to his back.IC you don't think h e gives you satis-factory senrice. tell him, and maybehe will not mistreat you sgain.

Don't bother him whe n he is busy,as his work must be done on t ime.He has regular report days and hoursand has t o do those th ings a t t ha ttime.

Don't t hlnk he Is not, friendly withyou if he does not a sk you into hisoffice, as his office i s a completerecord of a ll freight, express andWestern Union business done byeverybody, and you might find outsomething nbovt somebody else'sbusiness if h e let you have access tohis office.

If he qnotes you a wrong rate, don'ttry to tell someone else he is rightand that you are not going to pay thecorrected rate, and don't think hemade a mistake in the rates for hispersonal benefit, a s that would jeopar-dize hi8 job.

Feel f ree to ask a l l the quest ionsyou want to about rates, train times.train connections, etc., but try to finda time when the agent does not lookand act like he had more to do thanhe would ever get done.

Don't expectorate and throw trashon th e waiting room floor. Help himkeep things in- a neat and clean con-

dition.Your railroad agent is, o r should be,

one or your b,est citizens, ready tohelp and be helped at any time, sotreat and make him treat yon as such.