Local folk win val-
entine basket-see
page 12
"Zorro" turns 45-See
page 10
i¸ i!)•i:!¸ !ii/
Perkins
State Develop-
of Perkins,
Is, is in
developing 15
Estates
Street
lots, origi-
in the early
of 105 total
be eventually
and Wayne
doing the
week to get
the lots and
r Avenues.
as these 15
will develop
with an even-
100 residential
lots that
builders.
to build
but is making
to builders
to be in
range.
are in short
-~ars ago there
now there are
"The de-
that
to pay $5-
if they were in
can. get
building in
ionals
at new
ct playoff
school officials
:!~:::::::.i: ::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Grassfires plagued area fire-
men Monday as high winds and
dry grass combined for a com-
bustible day.
Perkins Volunteer Fire Depart-
ment personnel responded to as.
sist Ripley firemen on a huge fire
north of Ripley just east of Stt l 08
and County Road 68th.
Ripley Fire Chief Bill Layes
tom The Perkin, Journal that he
had three trucks t~. in, g to put the
fire out that almost consumed a
grader on the side of the r~md (left
photo).
Several homes and other struc-
tures were in danger especially
the VanBuskirk and Custer
homes located on the rural road
where this photo was taken just
east of SH108.
Fortunately they were on hand
Monday evening around 5:00
p.m. when the local firemen re-
sponded to a fire southwest of
Perkins at the Alta Youngker
home (photo below).
The fire at the Youngker home
did not destroy any buildings but
did catch several roundbales on
fire. The fire apparently was
started to the southwest of the
farm and burned all the way to
the edge of Mrs. Youngker's
home.
Mo ea~, fo~thefi~es has ~n
determined yet.
Will also host
playoffs that
27 with
the after-
be in next
for the sub-
PTHS grad helps messages get from "there to here"
games between
will start
at 6:30
'at 8:00.
or school
honored at
rules
and $2 for
-~ rates are also
page
to us!
is impor-
go to the
r~riew-ed or
to The
l.er, Perkins •
Mich. "
Stillwater *
Holsapple,
Perkins
, Tulsa • O.W.
• Linda Por-
• Felsa
have the
mailed to
see page
Review
Matheson,
Perkins
10-
34; Rainfall:
l ebruary 11 -
22; Rainfall:
12
26; Rain-
13-
Rainfall:
14-
Rainfall:
15-
24; Rainfall:
16-
32; Rainfall:
By Margaret Coate
There must be a lot of people
who aren't acquainted with com-
puters so, of cou:se, they don't
know about"e-mail" which is a
short way to say "electronic
mail." They don't realize how
much faster mail can get to its
destination via computer than it
does by "snail mail"--the long
established way of getting mail
across town or across the coun-
try.
Naturally, mail traveling over-
land on a truck or by train--or
sometimes by airplane--is much
welcomed and will, hopefully, be
around for a long time to come.
But in these days and times
when it takes a letter sometimes
a week to go a short distance due
to having to be sent to a larger
town to be sorted and then
mailed out to its destination, it
is nice to know that you can type
a letter with a computer, click on
the "send" button and have the
mail on its way to your corre-
spondent in a matter of seconds.
I don't know where a copy of the
message goes after it leaves the
home PC but it only takes a very
few seconds for the recipient to
be able to view it on their own
PC (personal computer).
Now, a computer has to be
hooked up to the phone line in
order to send and receive mes-
sages, whether at home or in an
office--or overseas--and one
person who knows how to send
messages from overseas via a
computer is Sgt. Terry Stafford,
a 1987 graduate of Perkins-
Tryon High School.
Stafford, who is presently with
Eskan in the Patriot Missile Di-
vision serving in Saudi Arabia,
could tell you exactly where the
message goes and how it gets to
its destination for, even though
he is far away from home, he
helps messages from fellow sol-
diers as well as from himself get
to their loved ones back in the
states.
An article by Staff Sgt. Mark
Diamond, 4409th ABG Public
Affairs. tells about how mes-
sages get delivered stateside via
radio operators: "Many Eskan
service members have walked
Continued on page 9
Stillwater man instrumental in getting Eaton recognized by Cowboy Hall
(Ed: Note-Lance Millis of Still-
water was instrumental in get-
ting Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton
nominated for a "Directors
Award" from the National Cow-
boy Hall of Fame and Western
Heritage Center. Those ceremo-
nies will be held March 14-15 in
Oklahoma City. Millis re-
searched and wrote a letter to
the National Cowboy Hall of
Fame urging the board of direc-
tors to consider inducting Eaton
into the Hall of Fame. The Jour-
nal thought that his letter would
be of interest to its readers.)
Nomination for Induction of
Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton into
National Cowboy Hall of Fame
and Western Heritage Center
Few have put it better in de-
scribing Frank "Pistol Pete"
Eaton than Effie S. Jackson in
her 1937 interview with him for
the WPA inspired Indian Pio-
neer Papers. She wrote "His
appearance suggested the old
plainsman, the Indian Scout
type. Slender, weather beaten,
keen eyed, with long gray hair
to his waste, chaps, boots, spurs,
sombrero, old style holster with
its %humb buster' Colt, he typi-
fied the early territorial days."
Although he seemed larger than
life to those who knew him and
those who have heard of this leg-
endary man, he stood only 5 feet
5 inches tall and weighed 150
pounds. He was extremely bow-
legged from the many years in
the saddle, and had a lazy eye
which made it difficult to tell
where he was looking. Frank
Eaton was a cowboy, now doubt
about it, and he ~ dressed
the part. Even until his death
in Perkins, Oklahoma at the age
of 97.
Born in 1860 in Hartford, Con-
necticut, Frank Eaton moved
west with his family shortly af-
ter the close of the Civil War.
They settled near what is now
Lawrence, and lived in other
towns in southeastern Kansas.
After his father's death, his
mother remarried and the fam-
ily moved to Indian Territory in
1873 and lived near Bartlesville
and then in Delaware County.
Eaton settled on his own home-
stead near Perkins, Oklahoma
shortly after the Land Run of
1889, where he lived the rest of
his life. Besides living most of
his life in Indian Territory, he
also spent time in Texas, Arkan-
sas, Missouri, Kansas, New
Mexico, and Arizona.
Until he settled in Perkins,
Frank made a living as a cow-
boy, working for the Comanche
Pool in the Cherokee Strip of
Oklahoma and the famous JA
Ranch in the Texas panhandle
(owned by Colonel Charles Good-
night), among others. Along
with driving cattle along both
the Chisolm and Santa Fe Trails,
he rode fence and tracked cattle
thieves for various cattlemen's
associations. Later in life, he
was a blacksmith m~djack-of-all-
trades around his home in
Perkins. in 1929, he was a Town
Trustee, and many remember
him being Town Constable or
Night Watchman for a number
of years. Glenn Shirley, noted
author in Stillwater, recalls that
that was "between the world
wars," probably the 1920s and
1930s, and that he was also
made an Honorary Deputy of
Payne County around 1950.
Throughout his life, Eaton told
the story of his father's murder
and how he tracked down and
shot the culprits. During the
time he was learning to handle
guns and eventually avenging
his father's death, he was given
his nickname "Pistol Pete" for
his quick draw and accuracy
with agun. He also told of hav-
ing been named a Deputy United
States Marshal due to his gun
handling ability and because
there would be no one to cry for
him if he were killed. His story
was and still is widely published
in books, periodicals and news-
papers (partial list attached) and
was detailed in his 1952 autobi-
ography Pistol Pete--Veteran of
the Old (called "...an excit-
ing genuine bit of Americana..."
by the Chicago Tribune at the
time of its release). The story
has become legendary and is
widely believed to be true. How-
ever, as indicated in the attached
letters from the United States
• Marshal Service and the Fort
Smith National Historical Site
regarding Deputy U.S. Marshals
of that day, it js possible that he
was a Deputy, and that no record
of that ever existed.
In 1923, after serving as Mar-
shal of a parade in Stillwater,
OK, Eaton was asked by a group
of students to be the model for a
new mascot to represent Okla-
homa State University (Okla:
homa A&M at that time). He
consented and OSU began to use
his nickname, Pistol Pete, and a
likeness of him on sweatshirts,
notebooks, etc. Shortly after-
wards, Collegiate Emblems of
Des Moines, Iowa was commis-
sioned to create what is still used
today for the official logo and
mark of the university. For 35
years, the crusty old cowboy was
a living symbol of OSU, repre-
senting the colorful past of the
area. As such, he would attend
OSU athletic events, building
dedications, etc. and sign auto-
graphs, pose for photographs
and reminisce about the Old
West with anyone who would lis-
ten.
In more recent years; the Uni-
versity of Wyoming and New
Mexico State University (Wyo-
ming being the Cowboy State
and NMSU's mascot being the
Aggie) began using variations of
that artwork as logos for their
schools. To this day, his likeness
is a visible reminder of the Old
West to literally millions of
people yearly as a symbol of col-
leges whose mascots pay homage
to the cowboy. An estimated
$12,000 in royalties was earned
by the three universities in 1995
alone from the sale of the mer-
chandise bearing his likeness.
Continued on page 2
