Oklahoma Today Winter 1963-1964 Volume 14 No. 1
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OKLAHOMA =IF-" -ENTC RAILROAD ADVENTURE '3% 7 4b I E.'$;+ - < 'j OUR ALL-SEASON SPORT- ,+i:l n.&'A w GOVERNOR, STATE OF OKLAHOMA VOLUME XIX, NUMBER 1 WINTER 1963-64 ED l TO R S BILL BURCHARDT PAUL E. LEFEBVRE DIRECTOR ART AND PRODUCTION HALE BICKNELL, JR. CIRCULATION AND PROMOTION Oklahoma Today is published quarterly in the interestof oll Oklahoma by the Oklahoma Planning & Resources Board: CHARLES 1. MONROE HUGH F. JONES CHAIRMAN DIRECTOR , n Oklahoma Today, Will Rogers Bldg., State Capitol, HE SAGA of the railroad in America has Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. $1.85 per year in U. S. and possessions; $2.25 elsewhere; 50' single copy. a cast of hemic men in real life adven- tures of epic proportions. Casey Jones, bWhispering Smith, John Henry-men cast Copyright 1963 by Oklahoma Today magazine. Second class in dramatic roles played against the postage paid at Oklahoma City. LlTHO IN OKLAHOMA churn and roar of flanged iron wheels, against (ti the grievingwail of lonely whistles that once b echaed fmm trestles long since crossed. Such IN THIS ISSUE I men have become legend. Let us add another to this list of legend. His name was Fogarty. THE FOUR HUNDRED AND The saga of John Fogarty does not consist of a lone thunderous exploit of destruction like Casey Jones. FOGARTY by Bill Burehardt Fogarty's story is altogether constructive, of many acts of courage, and of kindness, for John Fogarty was a KEEPING A DREAM ALIVE strong man and a kindly man, the kind of man who brought restraint to the American frontier, a steady, Elizabeth Stubler OUR All- unyielding, and unrelenting restraint, until this frontier knew discipline and law. SEASON SPORT by Wilbur John- He approached every problem of his life in much the same manner as when, being a handsome broth of son COLOR SCENICS FOR an Irish lad, he was having a shave in a Dodge City FRAMING BEAUTY IN SMALL barbershop. A hard case from the Texas plains, huge, . hairy, and rough, entered the tonsorial parlor. Finding THINGS by Bess Taylor all the barbers busy, the Texan rmmmarily seized young Fogarty and dragged him out of the chair. CALENDAR OF EVENTS by Karen The Texan aimed his -45 at the astonished Fogarty, informing him that age came before beauty, then lay Robinson JESS URKLE SAYS back in comfort awaiting the barber's hot towels. Fogarty removed the barber's apron, carefully wiped the remain- by H. C. Neal OKLAHOMA : ing lather from his face, and left the shop. A few minutes later he returned with his own gun. SCRAPBOOK THE FOLK This time it was Fogarty who jerked the hairy intruder POETRY OF DE~BERTDAVIS I out of the chair and did the gun pointing, but he was THE ETERNAL FIRE by Maggie The "Four-Hundred and Fogorty" with a full head of stem 1 lver Fry illustrated by pausing momentarily at the depot in Perkins, a town born in the Run of '89, then the home of legendary gun-fighter Pistol Pete Willard Stone Frank Eaton. BY BILL BURCHARDT more thorough. He forced the Texan to stand, in frothing paycheck from any road but the Santa Fe." frustration, and observe, while the barber patiently com- The eighteen years of the Four Hundred and Fogarty pleted Fogarty's shave. were exciting years. Oklahoma was a brawling youth. John Fogarty was a conductor for the Atchison, During those years of transition from territory to state- Topeka & Santa Fe. His train was the old No. 410, hood, Fogarty's train made its daily run through the but to the patrons along its circular run it was known country that hatched Bill Doolin's gang, and hard on as the "Four-hundred and Fogarty". It departed Guthrie their heels an oil rush that produced more wealth than at 5:00 P.M. every day, then ran eastward through Coyle, all the gold rushes in America combined. ;Perkins and Goodnight to Ripley, north through Still- Fogarty's passengers were cowhands as rough and water, Glencoe and Pawnee to Skedee, then back south ready as his earlier Dodge City antagonist, plus the through Maramec and Yale to Cushing. Here it tied up roughnecks, tankies and roustabouts of the oil boom- for the night. The next morning it retraced this same towns. His passengers were also the men who made circuitous route back to Guthrie. millions from oil; C. B. Shaffer whose Wheeler No. 1 John Fogarty went to work for the Santa Fe in 1880 opened the Cushing Field in 1912; Tom Slick, the as a section hand. During the next fourteen years he wildcatter whose income passed twenty million dollars was successively, an engine wiper, fireman, brakeman, per year; E. W. Marland, who became governor of then conductor. He took charge of No. 410 in 1905. It Oklahoma; "Josh" Cosden, who came moneyless but was his train for the rest of his life. He "never drew a genius driven from Maryland, who climbed the social KlAHOMA TODAY I THREE Sonta Fe timetable dated Feb. 5, 1905, the first of the historic years of the "Four-Hundred and Fogarty." heights to entertain the Prince Mr. Fogarty entered the coach of Wales, and whose name still to announce the station, and adorns refineries in the Odessa- called out loudly, several times Midland Field. Jake Hamon, Atci~ison, as he passed through the car, Major Gordon "Pawnee Bill" Topeka & "Goodnight! Goodnight!" As he Lilly, John Ringling of circus passed the little old lady's seat fame, C. B. Wrightsman whose Santa Fc she replied, "Goodnight t'ye, son became president of Stand- nranchcs sir, and I wish ye well." ard Oil of Kansas, and Harry All the episodes were not 1 Sinclair, founder of the Sinclair so quiet. One afternoon four Oil Company, were all regular drunken cowpunchers boarded ; passengers on John Fogarty7s Oklahoma Branch. Fogarty's train. They reeled No. 410 409 through the aisle yelling and Tnble 68 Ex.Su Though it was not these, but PM AM singing. Conductor Fogarty ad- little known folk whom time monished them to sit and be has forgotten, that made John quiet, that they were disturbing Fogarty7s name legend. The other passengers. The train family at the crossing near pulled out, but the conductor's Glencoe for whom Mr. Fogarty advice went unheeded. He re- always tossed an evening paper turned to warn them that they off the thundering train. The must behave or get off. For an youngsters waiting there would answer he got raucous laugh- give Mr. Fogarty a friendly ter and a hooting demand as to wave, pick up the paper and "who in the -- is going to run for home.For farmers along put us off?" Fogarty drew his the route who lived a long way pistol as he pulled the bell rope, , from station stops, Mr. Fogarty would stop the train and the train ground to a halt. .I anywhere out in the country, when there were few pas- "Get off and don't lose any time," said Fogarty. sengers on board, to let them off at the spot nearest Four chagrined punchers stared at the blue steel gun their home. barrel, at the equally blue steel of Fogarty's eyes, then Mothers would put a child on the train saying, got up and meekly marched off the train. They had been "Please put my boy off at Guthrie, Mr. Fogarty," and go thrown off the iron horse, and a long long way from town. their way securely knowing that lad would be safely During the oil boom, two tankies boarded the train , watched. Old timers along the line met the train daily one night at Pawnee. When the conductor came to take just to say "How d'ye do, Mr. Fogarty," and set their tickets, one of the tankies pointed a gun at Fogarty's watches by the train's punctual arrival. nose and informed him that this was their ticket. They A little, elderly lady sat quietly resting in her seat had caught the conductor unarmed. He departed, and one evening as the train approached Goodnight station. returned with a sawed-off shotgun. The tanbies coughed F- 'I- Conducter Fogarty, overcome with emotion, boutonniere and iacket pocket filled with flowers from adm~rers. up their fares. When the Four and a chorus answered, 'He's Hundred and Fogarty reached all right!' Women who couldn't Yale they were put off the train, pass him their bouquets tossed turned over to the law, and in- them. Mr. Fogarty smiled in a carcerated in the Yale pokey. stunned sort of way for a while The finest of the tales of and then he broke down and the Four Hundred and Fogarty cried like a child." came in the later years, when John Fogarty passed on to Mr. Fogarty was hospitalized. his reward July 23, 1923. Part Word spread along the route of what we have written here that he might not return. The came from the memories of train crew answered daily, Uncle Dick Dickinson, engineer anxious inquiries all along the of the locomotive that pulled I way as to "how is Mr. Fogarty Conductor Fogarty's train dur- 1 getting along?' ing the 1890's. When Uncle 1 At last came a day when he Dick became too old to work, / began to improve, and finally John Fogarty took him into his his crew was able to spread the home. The old engineer lived word that the much beloved the rest of his life with the conductor was going to return.