Letter from Bert Hilburn to Jewell Hopkins, 8 June 1974<o:p></o:p>

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Dear Cousin Jewell:<o:p></o:p>

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Sorry to be so long answering you good and informative letter of May 26^th.  You surely are to be congratulated for your untiring efforts to preserve some of the history of “Mission Ridge Cemetery.�?SPAN>  Of course most of the personnel buried there are strange to me, having been gone from Dallas County since 1905.  <o:p></o:p>

In addition to our grandfather, Captain Wayne Harrell, I well remember George Nazelrod, William H. Darby, W. R. (Uncle Riley) Kee, James (Uncle Jim) Hall, Thomas E. Mustain and John G. Kreller, the father of George Kreller, the school teacher.  I went for a very short period to school, to George Kreller, whom I vividly remember. <o:p></o:p>

And that brings to mind my reference to the cemetery being on the Kreller farm.  I have a number of thimes been in the Kreller house, which was situated about ¼ mile north on the old road to Urbana, which ran through the south corner of what is now fenced in the cemetery.  Also the name Bullock is very familiar name, and it is my belief, that the Kreller’s acquired the farm from the Bullocks, and the application of the name Bullock would therefore be quite accurate.<o:p></o:p>

Yes, I have always understood our grandfather Captain Wayne Harrell, was the first burial in Mission Ridge Cemetery, originally known as Lone Post.  I was informed by Mr. Holt at the Holt Monument Company in Buffalo, that at one time the church was known as “Buzzard Roost�?and I have a faint memory that is true.<o:p></o:p>

I note the pamphlet indicates after their marriage in Tennessee, they (Andrew Wayne Harrell and Malinda Jane Bartlett) moved to Kentucky, where their first child, Uncle Frank Harrell (William Frank Harrell b. Oct 1852) was born.  I am hazy on that point, though Grandmother Harrell told me the story many times.  I do not remember them going from Tennessee to Kentucky, although it vaguely rings a bell.  However they did not go direct from there to Missouri.  I am quite clear on a one or two year sojourn neat Terre Haute, Indiana, where it was my memory, Aunt Nancy Jane “Sis�?Phariss was born, and had been for years impressed with the idea they were there two years, and that Uncle Frank was born there also.  Since getting your historical data, I now believe Uncle Frank, the first born was no doubt born in Kentucky, then they moved toIndiana, where Aunt Sis was born.<o:p></o:p>

Then they moved to Camden County, Missouri, living for a time on what was known as the Shauen farm, then to Urbana, where he became the operator of the Urbana Mill.  <o:p></o:p>

Though it is not recorded in the pamphlet, at the beginning of the Civil War he left his family, while they were living in Camden County, and which was in Confederate Territory, joined the Union Army (actually the Confederate Army, Co. D, 15^th Mo Calvery) and through the war was under the command of Col. J.E.B. Stuart, becoming Captain of a company of Calvary, and saw action in the great Battle of Gettysburg.<o:p></o:p>

During the last year of Ora’s and my residence in Pennsylvania, �?954�?it was one of my greatest experiences to have the privilege of taking my dear mother to the Gettysburg National Park, where she had the greatest thrill of her life in viewing the site of her father’s participation in one of the greatest battles of all history.  It covers a large area, with more than thirty miles of paved roads winding through vast fields of memorial monuments.  We engaged a guide to go with us as we drove through, and he sat on the outside of the front seat, with mother in the middle next to me, and she belabored the guide with hundreds and hundreds of questions, trying to identify the location of our grandfather’s company.  Of course the poor guide could not satisfy her on such an indefinite matter.  But that gave her something to talk about to the last day.<o:p></o:p>

Incidentally Aunt Dora Phariss, Uncle Daniel “crippled and deceased shortly before Grandfather died�?Mother, and your father were born in Camden County, and possibly Aunt Rosetta.  However I am not certain about your father and Aunt Rosetta.  They could have been born in the house where you were born, or even in Urbana.<o:p></o:p>

Oh, what fond memories I have of the dear old house where you were born.  The joyous days of my childhood with our beloved grandmother there, the thrill of the Louisburg picnics, or the occasional trips to Buffalo, could not compare with the joy of going to Grandmothers.  All my life I have remembered her as the noblest person I have ever known.  I will always remember your mother as being so very much in temperment as our grandmother.  Your mother was always my most favorite aunt.<o:p></o:p>

It was from that dear old Harrell homestead, one of the first frame, weatherboard houses in that section, one large room serving as both living room and bedroom, with a side room on the south, serving as kitchen, a large upstairs room serving as additional bedroom, etc., from this house your father with a small team of mules pulling a covered wagon took Ora and I to Bolivar, on our way from Dallas Co, after our marriage, to Oklahoma, by train from Bolivar to Springfield, where after a long stopover, another train to Oklahoma City, for overnight there in a hotel, the next morning by train to Chickasha, for a change to another train, to Anadarko.  We will always remember the day you father took us to Bolivar, Februay 9, 1909, a very rainy day, turning quite cold before night.  In the forenoon, over very rugged unimproved roads, wagon wheels sometimes in ruts, with the axles nearly dragging the center of the road.  The little team of mules almost exhausted.  We left before daylight, and arrived in Bolivar after dark.  Ora and I went to a drab hotel for the night, and your father went to a wagon yard, and slept in the wagon.<o:p></o:p>

You refered to the house Uncle Frank Harrell built about a half mile northeast of Grandmother’s house.  How well I remember that house, which was as you say Maud told you was one of the nicest houses in that section.  Truly it was, and he had a large barn, and I have vivid memories of as a small child playing in that barn with Bertha, who was about three or four years older than I. <o:p></o:p>

As I try to reconstruct the events of those historic times, I think it is possible the Bullock farm was east of the road, and the Kreller farm on the west.  There does not seem to be a possibility the Kreller place was farther north than ¼ of a mile.  While I cannot recall having personally knowing the Bullocks, though the name is very clear. ( Actually, Mrs. Bullock was Hester Ann McKinley, half sister to Bert Hilburn’s grandfather, Robert W. Hilburn’s second wife, the widow Nancy A. McKinley Crane whom Robert married in 1887, two years before Bert was born) I do personally recall the Kreller’s, as stated above I have been in the Kreller home on numerous occasions, and went to school to George Kreller.  He was a tall and very heavy set, even obese person.<o:p></o:p>

I do not remember the A.B. Church you mention, but clearly remember the many times the discussions about the Shauen farm where Aunt Dora and Uncle Daniel, and mother were born.  Apparently from your information they moved from there to just east of Urbana, where your father was born in 1870.  This seems to fall into line.  Though I cannot determine, whether Aunt Rosetta was born, possibly at the same place as your father, or whether on the homestead where you were born.<o:p></o:p>

I wonder if you were ever told of the location of the house where I was born.  It was located in a little one room log house, just about a ¼ of a mile southeast of the house where I (?) was born.  Then my brother Lonnie was born on what was known as the Narcut? place, a log house about ¾ of a mile northeast of the house where your were born. I was born January 21, 1889, and brother Lonnie was born October 16, 1891.<o:p></o:p>

You comment that all the data you were writing might bore me.  I must assure you it does not, and I’d give an awful lot if I had taken pains to record all the facts as they occurred in my childhood, and the information I could have assembled at that time.  I have always been firmly attached to things historical.  About ten years ago, no, about twenty years ago, I started to try to assemble facts about our ancestral line, but ran up against a dead end.  I would give anything to be able to give to my sons, information about the origin of our families.  I am deeply indebted to you for the results of your survey submitted in your letters and the pamphlets.  You say you spent about a year on this project.  About a year ago, I completed and placed in the archives of the Tulsa County Historical Society, a 249 page history of the Tulsa Street Railway, covering a period 1905-1936.  This was don at the solicitation of the Historical Society.  When they approached me on this project, I felt it was an impossible task.  The assets of the company were sold by the court at a receivers sale in 1936, and the court ordered the destruction of all records, which were not wanted by the purchasers.  So it looked like a stone was.(???) It did not seem possible my memory, and that of the very few old personnel left, would provide substantial information.<o:p></o:p>

To begin with I examined over 2000 city ordinances, many of which had to do with matters related to the street railway.  The original franchise was granted in 1905.  So I examined ordinances passed from 1905 to 1936.  Then I learned the library had microfil copies of the newspapers going back that far, so I spent 9 months, foru days per week, five hours per day at the library.  Though of course I was not on the project all the time, spending part of each winter for three years in California, during which time of course I could not apply myself to the project.  And even when I was at home, I had many other things to interrupt.  It was approximately three years from the time I started work on the history to its completion.  I was given quite a lot of help from some of my old employees.  I am enclosing a copy of a letter of appreciation from the Historical Society, which I prize highly.  I will say I feel they were a little extravagant in the praise, because I don’t feel it was that good.  However, I have been told by some, that they have read it twice, because it involves so much  of the actual history of Tulsa.<o:p></o:p>

I am disappointed at being (un)able to finance actual publication, and the society does not have funds for such a purpose.  They have received something like thirty manuscripts from executives of various industrial organizations and societies, and they told me my manuscript was the best and most comprehensive of any they had received so far.<o:p></o:p>

Again I want to thank you for all the information you have given, and of course works cannot convey our great gratitude for the attention you and ;your mother have given our sister’s graves.  I know God will reward you for your dedication.<o:p></o:p>

Ora and I do hope you continue to enjoy good health and with our love and very best wishes<o:p></o:p>

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Always yours,<o:p></o:p>

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Ora and Bert<o:p></o:p>