Leon told me that his mother Sudie Milton was born in Indianola, Oklahoma, and on his 80^th birthday, he was invited to go on a trip back to the native homeplace in Oklahoma.

One of Leon’s comments was that the old business section of Indianola is almost a replica of the present downtown Aubrey.

As he was talking to me the other day, he was telling about how his great-uncle and cousins were farmers. They owned a fairly nice farm with sandy loamy soil that was located just outside of town. The family built a storm cellar on the farm to protect themselves from the unexpected tornado or cyclone. The barn was built a far piece from the house and between the cellar and the barn they had a blacksmith shop that was used to do custom implement repairs and make the necessary repairs to the farm equipment.

Cotton was the chief agricultural crop that yielded the most funds for farm operations the full year. He told the story about one year when the family had a good year with the cotton crop. After the harvesting was over, the cotton was hauled to the Ratchford’s Gin and processed into several large five-hundred pound bales of cotton. The family had done very well with the harvest that year and decided they wanted one of the phones that was being installed up and down the road in their other neighbors homes.

When the phone was installed on the wall, it had a hand crank that was used to whirl around a few times, and as it was whirling it generated an electric current that passed the signal on to the local operator who was eagerly waiting to receive any good or bad news and make the connection at the switch board. The operator’s connections was either made to a local number or to long distance number.

Most of the subscribers had a long and two short rings or two short rings or three long rings and a multiple number of phones were connected according to the number and length of the rings. When a call went out, whoever made the original call (depending upon the number and length of rings) everyone on the line could tell who was making the call out and then the excitement would begin to take place as the clicks all up and down the line as the phones were lifted up and all of the neighbors knew the message that was being sent out. If a call to the Sheriff’s department was made everyone would immediately learn the nature of the phone call. If someone was sick, then pretty soon everyone in town knew who was sick. Or in the case of a raid on a local fermenting factory, the news quietly made its way around to everybody in town that the sheriff and deputies were on their way into the town and that everyone should watch out because someone one going to have to go to jail.

This particular blacksmith shop on this farm had been in use for many years. It was located on one of the many sand dunes which made the working with the iron and metal ideal as the blacksmith repairman was able to take the hot metal and form it into almost any tool or implement that was used on the farm or by the surrounding neighbors.

This Indian descendant historian told that when word got out on the one long ring and two shorts on the telephone that everyone made haste getting the farm and whiskey still location all dusted and camouflaged so that when the deputies arrived, the farm was very natural looking and industrious which created very little suspicion.

He said that the excess bottles of the manufactured product were sometimes buried in the soft sand inside the blacksmith shop’s sandy floor, and the location could be readily made available in the case of some of the friends or customers needing some of the world’s oldest known medication.

The deputies would visit around the farm for a while and if nothing seemed suspicious and everything was looking in good order, then the operator of the blacksmith shop gave the investigator a jug. He would quickly hide the bottle and would be on his way to another complaint.

After the law enforcement officials were on their way, the one long and two shorts on the phone line was letting all of the party line know that things went rather well and that the deputies were on their way to another well known and industrious location.

The First Annual Cherokee Heritage Day was celebrated with an extra large turn-out. The event was an opportunity for the Cherokees of Texas to get together and plan for an even larger celebration next year. The occasion was in addition to another celebration that took place in Laredo and in Mexico on the same day.

The photo this week is the farm house built by Leon Milton’s uncle (Jim Bell) and his wife. The house was built around a log house that had previously been built. Notice that cotton was the chief crop of that day and was growing right up to the house. The house was located just west of the now well known McNatt Lake road that runs out east of town. The photo was made in the 1890's. Jim Bell’s wife’s name was Allie. She was the daughter of David Rae. This photo is courtesy of Otha D. Milton.