WILLIAM EDWARD "BILL" POWERS

One of Oklahoma's native sons will celebrate his 90th birthday Saturday, December 21, in his home northwest of Mannford. He is William Edward (Bill) Powers, a former resident of "old" Mannford, who, like many others, had to move because of the coming of Keystone Dam.

Expected to be with him Saturday will be his wife and members of his family, including a daughter and grandson and their families who live nearby, and other grandchildren and friends who take time during a busy Christmas season to make special note of the occasion.

A son of Pioneer Oklahoma stock, Mr. Powers was born in a log cabin December 21, 1895, in a part of Indian Territory later named Ottawa County and which is located in the extreme northeast corner of the state. Miami is its county seat.

His grandfather had located there in the years preceeding his birth, having come from Illinois. His mother's people had come from Indians.

The influx of people from many places to this state before and after statehood is described in George Hall's poem, "Land of the Mistletoe."

The cabin in which he was born was located between Spring River and the Missouri line. His paternal grandfather had moved to the Territory years earlier to help the federal government transport the Modoc Indians from Baxter Springs, Kansas, to the nearby Quapaw Indian reservation. The Modocs, an Oregon tribe, were shipped by the government by rail from their Western lands to Baxter Springs, where the Frisco line ended. There they were picked up and brought to the reservation. The Powers cabin was not far from the reservation.

"Having always associated with Indians from childhood days and on through grade school and high school, I made a lot of Indian friends and have a high regard for them," Powers remarked.

The first school he attended, Peoria District No. 1, now more than 100 years old, is still standing but the building, although in good condition, os no longer used as a school, but has been taken over by a church group. The early school went through fourth grade.

After completing the fourth grade, he was transferred to a Catholic school, St. Mary's of the Quapaws, located at Lincolnville, OK. The community no longer exists.

"Lincolnville, about three miles southeast of Quapaw, opened the first lead and zinc mines in that area. It at one time was a small, bustling community complete with all the necessities for community life - a grocery store, hardware, skating rink, drug store, dentists' and doctor's offices and other businesses.

"Several years later ore was discovered in large quantities around Picher. Lincolnville was abandoned as families moved to Hattonville (now Commerce) which was booming. All that remains of Lincolnville are the crossroads.

"That part of the country was raw, pioneer country with only wagon trails. No paved roads or bridges existed. Mail was brought from Baxter Springs to Lincolnville by a rural mail carrier with horse-drawn hack who took all day to cover his mail route and return home. Later, when roads were improved and he got a car, he completed the route by 10:30 a.m.," Mr. Powers recalls.

One of the early stories Powers remembers hearing during his youth involved two men riding up to the house one night and asking to leave their mounts in his father's barn. His father told them he didn't have room in his barn but on west a family with a larger barn did have room. The men rode on and did leave their horses at the neighboring farm.

"Thyey left two fine horses there and never returned for them. We figured out later they were the James boys," Powers said.

After completing school at St. Mary's of the Quapaws, the stalwart youth became associated with his father in farming and stock raising. While engaged in this endeavor he was called into service during World War I and was among the "Doughboys" who sailed for France on July 14, 1918. On August 6 of the following year he was discharged at Camp Pike, Ark.

"I resumed stock-farming operations in Ottawa County. On July 14, 1926, I married my wonderful wife," (the former Opal Franklin).

As an aside, he noted that the number 14 has been his lucky number. He quit smoking on January 14, 1965. Although he never was a heavy smoker, the habit had been bothering him and caused the decision to quit. Afterwards, he could tell a big difference.

"I could tell a big difference, too," his wife of 59 years commented. "I no longer had to empty those stinky ash trays."

Bill and Opal Powers did not have many married years behind them when the Great Depression struck, crippling the country. "Many a day I worked for $1 a day for others on the farm," he said. Not making a living on the farm, he got a job with a lumber yard in town, but the lumber company, like a lot of others at the time, went out of business.

In 1937 he was appointed deputy county clerk of Ottawa County, a job in which he served two years, then went to work in the county assessor's office where he remained four years before resigning to work for Douglas Aircraft in Tulsa during World War II.

While working in the assessor's office he handled the first homestead exemptions after that law went into effect and as a member of the assessor's office, he handled land descriptions for the Grand River Dam Authority when the dam was being built. At Douglas he worked in the Photo Reproduction Department No. 644. Drawings were placed on a 12-foot-long glass table with lights underneath and photographed onto metal. The department would then cut out those parts which went onto bombers used by the Air Force.

Laid off after Douglas first closed, he went to work as a real estate broker in Tulsa. In the late '40's he remembers 3-bedroom brick homes with double garage at 31st and Harvard selling for $31,500 and good frame homes in Tulsa selling between $7,000 and $7,500.

After Douglas re-opened with new contracts, he was called back and he said they made him such a good deal he couldn't refuse. He retired from Douglas January 6, 1961.

In 1953 the Powers family purchased a place between Keystone and Mannford and were there when the federal government condemned the land by emminent domain to build the dam. The money he received was used to purchase the present homestead. The Powers' son-in-law and daughter, Cliff and Willene Langston, live just west of them and a grandson, Marc Langston, and his two children, live a short way up the road east.

"We were among the first whose property was bought by the government for the dam and were fortunate to have been able to buy land back when it was so much cheaper," he observed.

A charter member of the Creek County Rural Water District No. 5, he has served in different capacities on the board since 1968, with a lapse of one or two terms. The water district obtains its water from Mannford, with whom it has a good working relationship. Powers is still an active member.

He also has been active in the American Legion and belonged for 15 years to the Floyd L. Perry post in Miami before joining Mannford post No. 179.

Mr. Powers still runs a few Hereford cattle on his acres west of Mannford and manages to do his own yard work.

Observed daughter Willene: "When he gets on that John Deere tractor, his 'yard work' includes part of the pasture."

While his health for the most part is good, problems with vision limit his driving to daytime only. He still drives into Mannford.

"I've seen a lot of changes in this state since my boyhood. From Miami to Vinita was only 30 miles but then it was a 4-hour journey over dirt roads and we had to ford small streams and washed out places with our Model T's - but those old cars could take it."