I talked with three of Drumright's early day settlers over the phone about the oilfield and Drumright in the early days. The following stories are what the ladies I talked with gave me. They are all very interesting ladies to talk to and I appreciate them giving me the time to talk to them and get some facts about early Drumright.
Mrs. Emma Zumwalt talked about the early days of Drumright when oil was first starting. She and her husband moved here from Kansas with an oilfield contractor. Her husband was a rig builder and worked on them also.
Mrs Zumwalt said that when they moved here 70 years ago, Drumright was only a 'tent town.' The streets were dirt and most of the time had mud 3 to 4 feet deep. There were no sidewalks at the time and very few buildings, but hundreds of rigs.
She stated that when they moved here, they and others thought that the oilfield here would 'only last a couple of years. If anyone told me I would still be here 70 years later, I would have laughed.'
Mrs. Zumwalt said her first house was a "boxcar house' on Iron Mountain lease, being straight through and having only straight up and down boards. She said it was small and only took about 15 minutes to clean. She said they chose to build a boxcar house instead of living in the tent. She had heard that 'snakes get into the tents and didn't want any part of that business.'
One of the big things during that time she said was when lightning hit one of the tanks and it would boil over. She said the whole town would gather at one of these tanks just to see it boil over. When one was struck by lightning, it would light up the entire town.
Mrs. Zumwalt said that there was money during that time. 'The men worked hard and the women got to stay at home. They cooked, cleaned and just took care of their homes.' She also stated that 'it wasn't hard times. Hard times is when you don't have money, and we had money then. It's not like now at all. I wouldn't have missed that time at all. It was a wonderful experience during the opening of the oilfield. I wouldn't have changed a thing.'
Katie Schickram came to Drumright in 1920 when the oil boom was going on. She remembers the Post Office serving 15,000 people. 'There were no deliveries, everyone picked up their mail at the Post Office.' She said the streets were bricked when she came here which is what's under the blacktop now.
She remembers it as being a young town. There were lots of older people in Illinois where she came from, but not in Drumright. They were mostly young people seeking jobs in the oilfield.
Mrs. Schickram came to Drumright from Illinois after a friend of hers got her a job in Drumright as a school teacher. She went to work at the 3rd Ward School in the South East part of town. She walked each day to school that year and never missed a day. She says looking at the hills of Drumright now and the weather and states, 'I don't know how I ever did it. In that day and time there was no air conditioning and no cafeterias. If you wanted to eat, you brought it yourself.'
She remembers riding the train to Drumright and it backed up to the Depot. She got off the train and took a taxi, a Model T, and went to Briggs Lumber where her friend worked.
That same friend introduced Katie to her husband, now of 67 years, on a blind date. That was in the fall and by Christmas, they were engaged and soon married. Katie's friend passed away just last year and she says she 'still misses her, she was a good friend.'
Katie's husband Jack inherited his name when he moved to Drumright to work in a bank. Jack's real name is Frank, but when he went to work in the banking business in Drumright, there were already 2 Franks. So the President of the bank gave each one a different name to be called by. The President had a son named Jack, so he decided to call Frank Schickram Jack and the name has stuck with him ever since. Katie says, 'I've always called him Jack, I just can't call him Frank. It's even listed in the phone book as Jack.'
Katie remembers there being 3 banks here and 3 movie theaters, silent of course. They were also black and white movies with a piano player to play to the movie. There were businesses all up and down Broadway and they all stayed open late - 10:00 p.m. There were also lots of eating places. She says she was making $50 a month in Illinois they they offered her $125 in Drumright per month. She said she couldn't pass it up. But when she arrived, she found it cost more to live here.
Katie says there's nothing like living in Drumright all of these years and seeing all the changes - but she said it was fun watching the boom.
Mary Scheer came to Drumright in 1924. A relative of hers wrote to her about Drumright and told her there was work here so she moved and went to work for the Santa Fe Depot.
She said she remembers shootings on Broadway Street of Drumright. But 'the people were always friendly' and she quickly became acquainted with them.
Mary said she remembers when the mud in the streets was so thick that the horses became bogged down so deep, they had to be shot because they couldn't get them out.
Mary and her husband, who worked for an Oilfield Machine Shop as a bookkeeper, bought 10 acres south of town where the 'Hump' was once located and nowq the Huff home. She said the "Hump' was alreadty torn down when they moved here.
Mary said one funny thing she remembers happening to her right after she moved here was 'one day the fire whistle went off. I went out on the front porch and asked the neighbor what was going on and she told me the creek was on fire!' Well, Mary says being from Kansas and not really knowing a lot about the oilfield, she thought the neighbor was making fun of her, but 'come to find out, the creek was really on fire!' She said that sometimes the hot oil went into the creeks and caught on fire.
She also told me that it was quite an experience to live in Drumright during those days. It was something else to see.
I want to thank Emma, Katie and Mary once again for giving me the time to tell me about these interesting experiences and to let me share them with you. If you have a chance, talk to some of the people who have been here since early Drumright days, they can tell you some very interesting stories.
Shelia Blay, Editor
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