T.J. Archer Part 2

When Ann Mowbray arrived at the Tulsa train station, having been summoned by her father to come play the organ at his church, T.J. Archer and some other citizens were sitting on the porch in front of his store. As Reverend Mowbray escorted his daughter past the store, T.J. said, “There goes my wife.” One of the other fellows said, “I’ll bet you a box of cigars that she’s mine.” Archer took the bet and sure enough, about a year later they were married.

To meet Annie, Archer attended the Methodist church where her father pastored.

Born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire England, the Rev. George Mowbray came to Tulsa as a pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in 1887.

After they were married, they lived in a room in the back of Archer’s store for the first 3 years, where their first child was born. He then bought 32 acres in North Tulsa and built their first house in the 500 block of North Main.

About 14 years later, a larger brick home was built in the lower lot at the corner of Easton and Main. It had 7 bedrooms, a parlor, a library, a dining room, a kitchen and one of the first modern bathrooms.

1902- Front Row: Beth Thomas (Meeks), Harley Thomas (Joiner), Grace (Mowbray) Winterringer, (Baby) Mildred Winterringer (Wickizer), Helen Mowbray, Hannah Elizabeth Mowbray, (baby) Madeline Mowbray (Harris), Gertrude Winterringer (Carr), George W. Mowbray Sr, Georgia Archer (Young), front of Georiga, Melton Winterringer, Annie (Mowbray) Archer. Back Row: Heck Thomas, Matie (Mowbray) Thomas, George W. Mowbray jr, Mame (Robertson) Mowbray, Mabel G. Archer (Curry), James V. Archer.

1906- From left to right: Annie C. Archer, and her mother and father, Hannah Elizabeth Mowbray, and George W. Mowbray

The Archer children attended the “subscription” school at the church, where parents paid $1 per child to attend. It went from 1st to 8th grade. There were no organized public schools at that time.
1894 The school sat on the north side of Boulder and the MKT Railroad tracks.

The Story According To Mabel Archer Curry:

One day in 1895, one of Archer’s friends, an Indian by the last name of Perryman (first name unknown), came into his store inebriated and told Jeff he was going to shoot him. Perryman had been seen down at the train depot shooting at boys’ toes to see them jump before coming into the store. Jeff told him that he didn’t want to do that because they were friends. So instead of shooting Jeff, he shot at the floor, into cans of blasting powder. There were three explosions, the force of which knocked Jeff into the heavy shelving, set his clothes on fire and blew the roof off the building. He got out with his clothes on fire and ran up the street to the doctor’s office. Perryman was blown over the railing, over the safe and was killed instantly.

Archer was treated for his burns, but there was no hospital in Tulsa, so he was taken home where he died one month later from his injuries. He left behind 3 children ages 3 ½, 1 ½ and a baby born 4 months after he died. His widow Annie never remarried.

George Mowbray, who had been living and preaching in Stillwater with his wife, returned to Tulsa and took over running the store with Annie, later becoming Tulsa’s 5th mayor, the first president of the Commercial Club as well as an undertaker and real estate broker.

photo taken around 1912-
A street and a brick store were later built and named The Archer Building in 1909, to commemorate the life of Thomas Jefferson Archer. The building under construction (2nd story framing and window frames are visible), on the left, was the Archer Building.

A piece of that history lies in the Vintage Gardens at the Tulsa Historical Society.

Tulsa Founders: T. J. Archer

Thomas Jefferson Archer came to Tulsa in 1882. An orphan child, he had worked hard and had saved enough money to buy a tent. He followed the railroad workers, pitching his tent along the right of way when they were building the Frisco railroad from Vinita to Tulsa. He sold work gloves, work shoes, tobacco and quinine (which everybody had to take for malaria), and a few groceries- staples like coffee, beans and rice. When the railroad team moved on, so did he. But when the railroad people got to Tulsa, they stopped. So T.J. got a bill of sale for half a block of property. It started at the railway line and First Street.

In this map of Tulsa as a tent town in 1882 or 1883 Mr. Archer's tent is number 4

click to enlarge:

He pitched his tent right there, selling gingerbread cookies and coffee as that was all he had left until the next train came in. Another family by the name of Hall moved in across the street and opened a general store.

T.J. quit selling groceries and put in some hardware and furniture stock. This was his first store- Archer is in the center with his hand in his vest:
In a memoir told by Mabel Archer Curry (daughter) in 1978 she says:
“My father (Thomas Jefferson Archer) had a little store where he sold dry goods, and later farm equipment."
Archer is again in the middle, wearing the buttoned jacket; to the right is the town Marshall. Gentleman on the left is unknown. The store, at this time, had been upgraded:

“Farmers would come in and buy things from him, sometimes on credit. When they gathered their crops, they would either pay him, or if they didn’t have the money, they would pay him with livestock. When he received livestock from people, he would put them in a feed lot. At the end of the year, he would ship a carload of cattle to market and take the money from the sale and buy stock for the store. In that way he was able to buy some land and build a house.”
Livestock out behind the store:

Interior shot of the store. In it we see buckets, lanterns, wagons parts:

In this next interior shot....:

...we see horse collars (hanging from the ceiling on the right), rifles, pistols, ammunition, and black powder (kegs on the right), cook stoves (center), oil lamps and other household goods (on the left). A soda fountain can be seen in the left background. Mr. Archer is leaning on the counter.

Archer also sold furniture. This is the interior of his furniture store around 1892:
This is looking south on Main Street, Tulsa Indian Territory 1892. Thomas Jefferson Archer's 2nd Tulsa store building located on left:

The house that Archer was able to buy was very nice, indeed. Daughter Mabel: "The house had 5 rooms and a picket fence. The house was always painted green and had flagstone walks from the street to the house.” Their house was the first in Tulsa to have a bathtub.

Next up: The family and an untimely death.

Veterans Day

Technical Difficulties

My old pc died and I am working off my little netbook while waiting for my new iMac to arrive. Blogging is a little challenging right now, but I did not want to miss the opportunity to honor the Veterans today with a few pictures from the Beryl Ford Collection, to keep this Tulsa History related. I will post a more personal entry on my other blog.

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In 1917 a parade was held to honor patriots and encourage young men to enlist in aniticipation of the U.S. entering the war in 1918. Photo was taken from top of the Robinson Hotel.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Tulsa honored Company D, 11th Engineers, 36th Division when they returned home on June 12, 1919 with the Arch of Welcome.
The arch was erected on Main Street between 3rd & 4th Streets and was built at a price of $3500 and paid by public subscriptions. It was made of paper mache and thrown away after.

Veterans Day Parade, circa 1955. Dode McIntosh, the last appointed Creek Indian Chief, in his World War I uniform. The parade started at approximately Frankfort and 3rd streets. Today the KOTV television studio is located on the intersection's southwest corner.

Thank you, Veterans, for serving.

More Downtown Memories

Other nostalgic memories of the Downtown Tulsa in the 1950's and 60's that Mr. Burns shared with me:

Locust Park
One of the first city parks, located between 13th and 14th, from Cincinnati to Detroit, Burns recalls it having a tennis court, wading pool and public building (post office?) where people voted. And now, if you look on a Google map, you can see where the park was- it is noted as Locust Playground. click on photos to enlarge

A view (via Google):
Here is a newspaper clipping from the 1950's featuring neighborhood kids and Locust Park:

Riverview School

Burns attended Riverview School which was located around 12th and Guthrie- 512 W 12th. This photo shows the school from a distance (12th and Denver):

The place where the school once stood is now a Firehouse. However, if you look closely at the parking lot, you can see the raised cement border indicating where the playground was:

For more interesting information, photos and history on this neighborhood visit the Riverview Neighborhood webpage..

Burns recalled the neighborhood around where the Civic Center now stands. In this photo, taken when the 1957 Plymouth was going to be buried, you can see that neighborhood in the background. This was in front of the courthouse on Denver:

More pictures from the downtown neighborhoods-
3rd and Denver, 1953:
West Denver between 4th and 5th (new courthouse in back):

North Denver and 5th- Al Musik's Drug Store:

Burn's mothers came to Tulsa in 1931, graduating from Central High School.

A few more miscellaneous items he shared with me:

More memories:
"I remembered Hackett's bowl for two reasons, the one on Main had pool tables and my little brother was in a league on the one off Detroit. My mom told me the first TV they ever saw was at the Green Dragon Lounge on the corner of 15th and Main. Do you remember Coleman's on the other corner, home of the cowboy sandwich?"

I don't. Do you?

Growing Up On First Street

The son and grandson of the Noah’s Ark owners shared a lot of memories (and pictures) with me, reminiscing about growing up downtown in the 1950’s and 60’s. Just like oral histories, these are all great peeks into a unique past that once was-and they need to be shared.

Samuel Burns (grandparents) migrated to Tulsa from Muskogee around 1929. They lived in a house on 13th and Boston.

The site is now (what else?) a parking lot for the Boston Avenue Church,
which you can see in the background of this picture (below) taken in 1953-4. Next door, to the right, was Mrs. Henry’s Flowers. (click on photos to enlarge)

Here are some more views of the house and neighborhood.

This is Mrs. Burns, photo looking east on 13th Place.

Across the street from the house was Al’s Grocery, Draughn’s School of Business and then Fred Jones Ford.

The elder Mr. Burns tried selling oil futures, but the Depression was hitting hard and they were broke, so he gave that up and took everything in the house and opened Noah’s Ark.
“My dad said he (Grandfather) used to go to the Coney Island next to The Orphus Lounge and hock his ring for something to eat, he would then go and try to find something to sell and would then redeem his ring and start all over again.”

This was the younger Burns' playground:

He has vivid memories of running coffee and donuts from Unkle Willies Donut Shop to the Bliss Hotel, where all of the pro wrestlers stayed when they came to town to wrestle at the Coliseum. Unkle Willies was located between the Reeder Hotel and Harringtons (a favorite place to hang out).

In describing the area he says:
“When we were on First Street to the left of the store was Pruitt’s Tools, then a bar my dad called the Bloody Bucket (I think the real name was Phil's), next to that was a tiny watch shop. Going right was Paul’s Loans and next to that was D&B Gun and Loans then Unckle Willies. Across the street was Cook's Grocery Store then two barber colleges and Bardons Auctions.


There were rooms above the colleges and a Madam who had a monkey that used to crawl on the barber college sign while she sat in the window. My dad used to force me into getting my hair cut there. You always wanted someone in the front to cut it, the guys in the back were new students.
Most of the working girls did business through the Bliss Hotel, yes there was Mays Rooms but it was the bottom of the rung. I knew two retired gals that ran the New JuJu's Lounge on 17th and Main. They used to tell me stories about "parties" they threw with the police at the Bliss. JuJu's is now Renegades.”

More memories to come……

Noah's Ark

Anyone who lived or worked downtown before Urban Renewal probably knew of Noah’s Ark- a quirky little store that was “docked” at 116 E. Main Street for 34 years, and later at 516 S. Detroit (from 1966-1974). A Depression-born business, it was known as the store “with a million items” – and they weren’t kidding.
Samuel Philip Burns was a colorful, funny man with a similar past. A native of New Haven, Conn and Yale University graduate, he worked as a reporter, a circulation manager, and a member of the Ringling Bros. Circus in a bareback riding troupe and as a clown. He was injured over in Europe during a stunt in which he was shot from cannon and returned to the U.S. working for the Charles Broadway Rouse NY Department Store. After working as a manufacturer representative and then owning his own wholesale business in Michigan, he moved his family to Tulsa. Together with his son Phil and another partner, they opened Noah’s Ark at 116 E. 1st Street in 1932. The other partner left the business after 6 months. The store was an early day pawn shop of sorts. They bought, sold and traded for cash. click on photos to enlarge

In the photo above is founder Samuel Burns and his son Phil in the early days. I love the signage. In the mid-1930’s Tribune Editor Jenkin Lloyd Jones wrote “The Rambler” column for the paper and once reported, “One of the worst commercialized puns in town is found in the slogan of Noah’s Ark, local secondhand store: $ee Noah and $ave Doah.”
The elder Burns clipped the article, mounted it on a larger piece of paper with a comment of his own below: “The Rambler sells newspapers. Noah sells everything.”
And that was probably very true. Here is a photo of Sam Burns’ wife inside the store.

Taken in the late 1930's or early 1940's; an awning has been added:
The DeVille Hotel was next door but after the war, in the early 1940’s, Burns bought the entire building, closed the hotel and expanded.

The Elder Burns passed away in 1955. Phil and his wife Jane ran the business themselves.
In a newspaper article from 1966, Phil is quoted as saying, “When we opened (Noah’s Ark) here we couldn't even afford to have the lights turned on. We used candles at night, then finally could afford to buy a (gas) lantern.” The store operated “on a shoe string- or actually two shoe strings” but people really were satisfied with a lot less in those days. And the two Burns fellows were sign-crazy, to be sure. Signs were everywhere, inside and out. “If you think its junk, just price it.” Another sign hanging over a wallboard full of hats proclaimed, “A lid for every nut” There were antiques, wall clocks, carved figurines, mounted elk heads, swords, old bayonet’s, rifles and….well, you get the picture. One reason for the store’s success was the good humor that marked their sales approach.
“If you like it, it’s ‘antique’. If you don’t, it’s junk!”

“Noah’s Ark believes in square dealing.
If you wish to be cheated, trade in Europe.
I have lived a thousand ages, and I know human nature.
I buy everything but stocks and bonds.
I have never seen the fan dance yet.
This hole in the wall is my business.
You are welcome to browse around,
but don’t ask me a million questions. Noah”

Phil was good friends with many, many people, including August Lee, manager of nearby Harrington's, shown standing in the store:

And the late Ted Sieler was also a good friend (Ted owned several bowling alleys including Sheridan Lanes):

The unique business was forced into moving when the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority acquired its First Street property. Burns relocated the store to 516 S. Detroit.

This newspaper photo shows some of the "items of interest" that the store was known for and another shows Phil modeling the hats (that weren't for sale) in 1966:


The name was the same at the new place, but the store had lost that happy jumble known at the first site. Items for sale in the 1970’s were socks, inexpensive cutlery, paper goods and an emphasis on costume jewelry. In 1974 the store closed for good.

Next up: Memories of growing up on First Street from Phil’s son.