In 1909, there was a big boom going on in Enid.  A big expansion and the place was really booming.  I don't know what the reason was, whether we were not doing well on the farm or whether the idea of going to a booming town was enticing or just what, but any way we moved to Enid.  I have the old sale bills that show that we had a sale on March 16, 1909 & then we moved to Enid.  We traded the farm in Logan County for one half block in north east Enid.  I believe the one half block was on the east side 13th or 14th St. and the north side of Walnut.  (Names of the numbered streets have been changed).   

 

I remember the first day in Enid.  I am quite sure we came on the train.  I can't remember the train ride but we went to a restaurant on the east side of the square.  I am pretty sure it must have been the Silver Moon Cafe.  I think Mabel & I were too excited to eat.  We stood at a big window at the front of the Cafe & watched the automobiles go by.  We were real excited about the automobiles.  And what really got us on our toes, they were trying out the first motorized fire trucks.  Just trying it out by driving it around the square & so forth.  I don't know if they bought it right away.    Anyway they had horse drawn equipment for some time after that.   The old fire engine with smoke coming out of the boiler, dashing along the street.  The boilers would supply the steam for the pump to pump the water.

 

Every forth of July, the fire department would make an exhibition run to show what they could do.  They would run up to the 5 story Chamber of Commerce building, the highest in town and they would extend their ladders & take their hose up & bring it down again. The property that we bought in Enid was right out in the middle of a wheat field.  No close neighbors.  By close, I mean I think it was about 3 blocks to the nearest house.  There was a little store down there about 3 blocks away.  This area was called the Davis addition.  The Davis's lived on 16th St and Pine.  The nearest row of houses was on Pine St.  Come to think about it, we lived in a small 2 room building on Pine until we could get what we called a shack built.  What we called a shack was something like a cross between a barn and a garage with a couple of doors and a couple or so of windows in it.  We had an attic with a floor which we used for a lot of storage.  I can remember that when we lived on Pine, that among our provisions, that we had eggs packed in salt in a big wooden box.  There must have been quite a lot of eggs in that big box.  They kept quite a long time, I don't remember how long.  When the shack was livable, we moved to it.  I remember the wheat field was green and we would play in the wheat field and drop down below the level so no one could see you so we would play hide and seek that way some times.  Soon after we started living in the shack, we started getting a house built.  I remember while we were living there they had turned this 2 room building where we had lived into a store.  The store was ran by a family named Day.    Their little boy Wilber waited on us occasionally.  Sometimes groceries were stacked pretty high for him.  I remember when we wanted a box of Post Toasties he reached up as high as he could and said "ount dis Postie Toasties" and he would get it for us.  We bought crackers by the crate which were stored in the attic of the shack.  We would obtain smaller quantities of crackers from the crate as were needed day by day.  I remember, that Halley's Comet made its appearance during the time that we lived in this shack.  I remember Mama & I standing in the South door of the shack and watching the comet, and wondering what it was going to do.  Our house was the first house built in the Davis addition.  This was in 1909 or 1910.  I remember while sleeping on the the floor of the shack that occasionally, rats would run over me and scare me.  I was glad to move into the new house.

           

On Pine Street there lived a fellow named Roberts that had the first motorcycle I ever saw.  He would wear his cap on backwards and goggles on his eyes and go tearing down the road stirring up a cloud of dust.  I thought he was a dare devil if I ever saw one.

    

In regard to my early days in Enid, Ruth gave me a book called the Cherokee Strip which I have enjoyed very much because it brought back a lot of the old happenings in Enid, most of which occurred before we got there.  The book contains so many things of which I was aware or had heard about and so many names of people that were familiar to me.  This book told so many things about events and people that I was very much pleased with it.