2003se05:se06; OK.P

Miniature "Craterville-type" Gathering
on the occasion of
THE CENTENNIAL OF PIEDMONT OKLAHOMA

Please make suggestions about errors or opportunities missed

The morning of the High School Alumni Banquet, Kelley Middaugh (Gill) hosted a brunch for two dozen of the celebrants. Rex Every took this picture of Aunt Joy (Fry) Richards, Mom Marge (Skeet Fry) Kimball and one of her sons

Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = The Great Assemblage
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Everyone's 1st grade teacher, Ruth Roberts (Mrs. Collett)
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Gene Gill (seated next to Rex Every)
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Gene and Willa take a break from book signing
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Glen Ratcliff, with Gloria & Class of '53 celebrating their 50th
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Ruth Peddicord was probably the senior student
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Marge "Skeet" Kimball (Fry) with her classmates
Piedmont High School Alumni Banquet = Lois Bestgen (Kimball) with her classmates

Next Day

Centennial Parade = Family gathered across the street from Wiedemann's store
Centennial Parage = Probably no one looked back and up at corner of Wiedemann's store
Centennial Parade = Glen and Doug Ratcliff, Beverly Hunsaker (Kimball), Lois, Ruth, etc. (1) (2) (3) (4)
Centennial Parade = Wiedemann's Store represented by fine old auto
Centennial Parade = Steam-powered tractor pleased just darn near everyone
Centennial Parade = Class of '43, Betty Tharp & Lois, escorted by Glen (1) (2) (3) (4)

Piedmont Historical Society, once Uncle Eddie Washecheck's Bank (fine windowhandsome facade)
Piedmont Historical Society = "Old-timers" gathered on the east side (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
Piedmont Historical Society = Portrait of Mae & William Valentine Fry, "89ers" & Stout relatives (1) (2)
Piedmont Historical Society = Allen Moffat and Gene Gill swap stories by the old wood stove
Piedmont Historical Society = A model of old town Piedmont

Piedmont Baptist Church ("I don't remember that many Baptists in Piedmont!?", someone said)

Mathewson Cemetery = Craterville-Twelve on pilgrimage (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)
Mathewson Cemetery = Fry family gravestones (1) (2)-(3) (4)
Mathewson Cemetery = Kimball family gravestones (1)-(2) (3)-(4) (5) (6)
Mathewson Cemetery = Long family gravestones (1) (2) (3)
Mathewson Cemetery = Peddicord family gravestone (1)
Mathewson Cemetery = Ratcliff family gravestones (1)-(2) (3)-(4) (5) (6) (7)
Mathewson Cemetery = Yet more gravestones (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Kansas Cemetery = Ansel Casto and Barsha Casto
Kansas Cemetery = Rebecca Cherry
Kansas Cemetery = Fannie Couch and Jess Pearson (1) (2)
Kansas Cemetery = Eddie and Hazel Washecheck

Modern housing fills the quarter-section "West Place" settled by William Heilig and Emma Jeanette Kimball. Terraces and other improvements built by Fred Hugh Kimball have all been leveled. In the banks of the creek there, the original Kimball "half-soddy" was built in 1889, and Fred Hugh was born. Here is what remains of the concrete water management canals Papaw and the Works-Project-Administration built in 1935  = (1) (2) (3)

But the "Craterville-Twelve", undaunted, gathered for another banquet = (1) (2) (3) (4)

Then, in the absence of Stover's dance-hall up on the corner of the Diagonal Hwy and the Yukon Road, it was off to Cousin Tim Russell's honky-tonk "Fred's". A massive gathering of cousins there = (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

WOW = What'a show from their band, "Way Out West", with Cousin Shawna the main vocalist
WOW = These frantic pictures almost produce a sound = (1) (2) (3)
WOW = Cousin "Pip" took the stage and laid down the blues = (1) (2) (3)
WOW = An unrestrained mob, led by Aunt Norma Russell, spilled onto the dance floor = (1) (2) (3)
WOW = If you can't discuss politics or speculate about religion, what's left?

Speaking of religion, the greatest disappointment of the weekend was that time did not allow many of us to join the 100th celebration that Sunday at the Piedmont Methodist Church

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