The town had a population of only about 3300.  The county had only one consolidated high school, Quanah High School.  But the radio station served a wide area covering several Oklahoma and Texas counties.  The station still operates on its original frequency of AM 1150 and has added FM broadcasting through a repeater station.  At one point in its history, new owners changed the call letters to KREL.  In October 2009, I got an email note from the current owner John White with this update:

John took advantage of the Internet and modern technology, enabling KOLJ to provide many services for the community.  John integrated the radio broadcast services with the multiple media available now, such as Facebook and other Internet services.

Periodic visits to Quanah for the annual Fall Festival and All-School reunion stir more memories and urge new connections with families from the past and still living in the town.  Each time I go back I renew acquaintances and meet folks whose family names I knew but whom I did not know personally

The Hardeman County Jail
This old jail is the same building and looks just the same as when we lived there.  I remember going down there with the kids or youth group from First Baptist Church and singing carols to the prisoners (in my vague memory, seems like only about 2 or 3 people!).  The jail was established in 1890, when Quanah became the county seat of Hardeman County, and was finished in 1891.

The town was established in 1884.

The Water Tower
I remember when they put in the new water tower across 11th street (Hwy 287) from our house.  It seemed to reach the sky.  It still stands in the middle of that block, the only structure, visible from almost anywhere in the town.  This was the new primary water reservoir for the town, which had to pipe its water in from some distance away.

New Heights
I remember how amazed we were that this new water tower was going to be 100 feet high.  Later in life, I used my memory image of this tower to gauge how high buildings and towers were!  There is a little park there now, and that block is nicely landscaped and well-kept, an attractive sight along the busy tourist and business route of US Hwy 287.

Johnsons's Rexall Soda Fountain
The soda fountain shown here in the drug store on TexasEscapes looks like the very same one that was there in our time when the store was Johnson's Rexall Drug Store.  When I was in about the 5th to 7th grade I would do live commercials for Johnson's on my daily radio program on KOLJ.

I remember that one Mother's Day back in the 1950s it was in Johnson's Rexall Drug Store that my two little brothers and I together bought a camera for our mother.  Dad took us in there and we all pooled our money to buy that Kodak Brownie camera.  She used it until just a few years ago, bringing it with her on two trips to Kenya to visit us, and trips to many other places.  It finally got too hard to buy the film for it, and she had to "upgrade" only a few years ago.

The QA&P Railway
The small picture near the end labeled "Museum" is the old railroad station for the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway.  This was already a derelict when I was a kid.  Passengers had to board at the main freight depot, about 2 blocks away over on Main Street at the RR tracks.  QA&P was primarily a freight company by then, and was shortly afterwards absorbed into the Frisco line, before 1963 when I moved to Arkansas.

The QA&P was the first railroad in America in which a founding shareholder was an American Indian.  Chief Quanah Parker, for whom the town is named, encouraged investment in the modern technology, considered a bane to the Plains Indians and the iron horse cut through hunting lands of the Native Americans.  Chief Quanah was an original partner in the QA&P.  Cattle shipping was a large part of the early transport business, and the cattle sale barn still was a big operation when I was living in Quanah.

For the Texas Sesquicentennial Celebrations (1958), they remodeled the old depot/station at 101 Mercer Street downtown, about one block west of Main, a block north of the Quanah Hotel.  This was the exposition center for the Centennial of Quanah, and later became a permanent museum.

Acme was about 5 miles west of Quanah, on Hwy 287.  Sometimes some of us would ride our motor scooters out to Acme.  Cushman Eagles were really popular then, and there were a lot of them in Quanah.  These filled a real need, as most of us had to work at various jobs and needed to get around town, as well as to school and other legitimate activities.  And, remember, the dogs all ran loose in town, and some of them liked to chase the scooters.

And here's a confession – some of you can join me in this, I remember being in a group!  I remember grabbing on to the back bumpers of a lone car when it would come slowly down the snow-ice covered street by Travis Elementary School (now the Quanah Junior High School) on Cain Street, an old stylish brick street.  We would ski along behind the car for a few yards.  Were we crazy or what?  But it never seemed dangerous in the town where everybody knew everybody and we roamed all over town on foot or bike or scooter.

Goodlett
Back to Hwy 287, west of town was the Chief Drive In Theatre.  We spent some summer evenings out there, fighting bugs and eating popcorn in the chairs at the concession stand building.

Farther west was the small town of Goodlett, about 9 miles from Quanah, I think.  I remember the old Goodlett school gym had become a and we would go on Friday or Saturday nights to skate.  Lots of church youth groups had parties at the Goodlett skating rink.

Also in Goodlett, my father had a Mexican restaurant for a while, not long, maybe a year or two.  I remember he had a counter and display selling Mexican leather goods, like purses, belts and wallets.

Dad brought back gifts of authentic Mexican leather bullwhips for us.  I remember using mine with great excitement and glee.  I don't remember many details, but my brother Greg might have some complaints about that in his version of the story.

Bob Nelson, who also grew up in Quanah, and was one of the Cushman Eagle group, wrote me in March 2010 to comment on the role of Fred Koch, whose family I know from the Quanah Tribune-Chief newspaper, in the restoration and historical focus in Quanah:

"Fred Koch has been instrumental in preserving some of the buildings downtown and in reviving interest in the town's heritage."

I had the delightful thrill of meeting an old school mate Carolyn Chapman Wilson, who is the Director of Arts for the Foundation.  One ongoing project is restoring many of the old business buildings on Main Street.  They have a beautiful ballroom in what used to be the M E Moses Variety (5-10c) Store.  School Reunions I have attended there have had their opening receptions and their closing banquets in the ballroom.  The Foundation has many cultural projects going on several levels.

Carolyn and her staff are cataloguing a donated collection of 60,000 classic vinyl LP record albums, now in the climate-controlled storage basement of the Foundation's ballroom.  Oh, and Carolyn showed us the beautiful and functional bar they bought from the set of the old TV series "Gunsmoke"!  I was so excited with everything I forgot to take a picture of the bar and the beautiful ballroom and main salon!  This was remedied when we returned for the 2013 reunion.

Stephan learned other languages in the concentraton camp where he was placed, and spoke 17 languages.  He learned English when he came to this country.  Stephan's funeral was conducted by a Catholic priest who was in the camps with him.  On my visit in September 2013, I saw a pair of boots made by Mr Podrovitz, now on display in the Quanah Museum.  Mr Podrovitz is a fixture in my childhood memories.

Hendrix Boot Shop
Earlier there had been another boot shop, owned by Theo Hendrix. Theo was a friend of my father.  He was a renowned boot maker, and his son Keith says customers came from North Texas and Oklahoma to have Theo make their boots.  Keith sent me a photo of his father and friends in his shop about 1952.  Mr. Hendrix's shop burned down about 1951 or 1952 in a fire that destroyed or damaged several other stores.

I would stand out in the edge of the field past the east end of our house talking to Mr Alvie about the crop and the cotton picking operation, while the pickers were working.  He told me about the plant, the cotton, how the cotton forms in the bolls and then is picked.  I always enjoyed learning how things worked, how things grew, how crops were managed and harvested.

Alvie had a daughter about a year younger than me named Mattie.  In September 2011, on a visit to Quanah for the All-School Reunion, I met Alvie's son Malcolm.

Highway 287
We lived on this cotton farm through my first grade of school, then moved into town, to 909 West 11th Street, on the west end of town.  Cotton farming gradually diminished over the years.  Wheat was the other major crop I recall.

Winter wheat was and still is an important crop.  Driving through the area in recent years, I still see wheat growing, but less land than I remember seems to be under wheat cultivation.

Of course, with the ranching in the area, hay fields were a beautiful contribution to our flat and featureless land area.

Eleventh Street of Quanah was the cross-country highway US 287.

US Highway 287 was the major north-south route from Port Arthur, Texas to Choteau, Montana.  It was going basically east-west as it went through our part of the country after coming northwest out of Fort Worth.

Four Winds Motel
Our house was near the west end of town.  Ours was the last residence on 11th Street, everything west of us being business.  The Fitzpatrick home across the corner was addressed on Combs Street, and their gas station was on the 11th Street side of their plot.  I remember when the Four Winds Motel was being built about 3 blocks west of us, just past the Airport Road and the western Loop Road.  An older motel in town was the 287 Motel, and there were probably others I don't remember.

The Four Winds Motel was built across Highway 287 from the famous Dutch's Cafe.  The Google Maps photo of the place from 2011 shows the business in that location at that time is A J 's Bar and Grill.

In 2014 I found current websites and directory listings again for Dutch's Restaurant.  Rebecca Ragan-Elmore gave me some information on the recent history of Dutch's:

Waylon Davis and Waylon was the one that got permission to call it Dutch's.  He sold it in 2000 to Robert and Brenda Riggs.  Robert Isenhower leased it after that, then an Ortiz leased it, then Kenny Briscoe.  Then Riggs ran it again, then last year sold it to the foreign owners.

In February 2014 I learned more about the Motels and their connections to Quanah families.  On our Quanah discussion group in Facebook, I met another former Quanah resident, Patti Murphy Obannon, who tells me that members of her Murphy family owned both the 287 and the Four Winds motels.  I learned Patti has written a book about her Murphy family, and she shared a few tidbits.

I had an uncle who was Chief of Police and my dad fixed TVs for everyone in town for many years. He worked first at Whites Auto until it burned and then moved his business to Becknells.

My dad was Rayford Murphy. His dad worked for the railroad for many years and died just a few days after he retired in 1937.  My Uncle Joe Murphy was Chief of Police all the time I was in high school.  I could do nothing that my dad didn't know before I got home.  Uncle Joe and his wife also ran the 287 Motel for several years and then the Four Winds Motel (now Quanah Parker Inn) [emphasis mine].

My memories that fit with these details.  I remember being given a tour with my father of the Four Winds when it was still under construction.  In a discussion on the Quanah Connection Group discussion list Luann Merrick commented that Freddy and Bobby Haynes were the first managers of the Four Winds. This filled the gap in my memory of the name of the manager who showed my father and me around the shell of the Four Winds under construction.  I remember Freddy explaining things to us, telling where this and that would be, how the rooms were organized and such.

Laundry and Lumber
Across Combs Street (the north-south street next to our house) was the Bland Lumber Company.  After Dad sold Radio Station KOLJ in about 1961, we continued to operate a business across Combs Street from our home.  While we still owned the radio station, my father had bought the corner lot on Combs Street and 11th and started a coin-operated laundry, abotu 1959, I think.  The address was 1001 West 11th Street.

In this business I learned the mechanics of washing and drying machines.  I helped my dad repair and totally overhaul these machines.  After some time, Dad added a coin-operated dry-cleaners.  After a while, Dad shut down that business, and leased the building to a barbecue restaurant, while we still lived in Quanah and ran the laundry.

In Google Maps' Street View from May 2011, The Quanah Florist is shown as the business in the laundry building, but I am told that business closed down in 2011.  At the time the business located in the former dry cleaning building was Pat's Video, also now closed.  In September 2014, the laundry building was empty and there were no signs on the building's windows. There waas a business in the dry cleaning building, with a small sign I cannot recall.

Our family also had a hugely productive truck garden.  In the summer, we operated a truck stop vegetable stall in front of our house, selling the produce.  On the quarter block (1/2 acre) plot, we raised all the vegetables we could eat, can, sell and give away.  We also took phone orders and delivered to homes.

We also had a fruit and nut orchard in the yard and garden, the full acre of our plot.  We learned a lot about organic gardening, nutrition, and working with the pattern of nature.  We continued to operate the "farm" and the laundry business for a couple more years before we moved to an Arkansas farm.

Cattle
Cattle ranching continued to be a major business for Quanah and Hardeman County.  Incidentally, it was in Quanah that I started my minor career as a rancher, with one calf I raised as a 4-H Club project.  From this I parlayed my modest earnings into a small cattle herd.

Patti Murphy Obannon commented:

My grandfather John W. Ford worked for my uncle, Marvin Wells.  "Daddy John" came to Quanah in 1897 and met Quanah Parker about then.  My grandfather Ford talked about sitting and visiting with Quanah Parker.

In 2009, I read a book about Quanah Parker that had a lot of info about his life, and cited letters from his friend Burk Burnett, and others, in his later business and personal associations.  (Burkburnett, Texas, near Wichita Falls, is named after Burnett.)

This book is The Last Comanche Chief:  The Life and Times of Quanah Parker (Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2007), by Bill Neeley.  Neeley says on p 228 that the town was named in honor of Quanah, Parker, in 1884.  In May of 1890, Quanah himself made a statement about this which was quoted in the Quanah Tribune-Chief Newspaper of 23 May 1890 (It would likely have actually been the Quanah Chief, owned by his fellow shareholder, Harry Koch, who founded the Tribune-Chief in 1897.)

The Tribune-Chief
The Tribune-Chief, or its predecessor The Quanah Chief, has been covering news since the founding of Quanah.  The paper was founded by Harry Koch (pronounced Kaw), a Dutch immigrant who founded the Quanah Tribune-Chief newspaper and was a founding shareholder of Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway.

Quanah's Speech
Neeley quotes the words of Chief Quanah from the article:
"It is well, you have done a good thing in honor of a man who has tried to do right both to the people of his tribe and to his pale faced friends.  May the God of the white man bless the town of Quanah.  May the sun shine and the rain fall upon the fields and the granaries be filled.  May the lightning and the tempest shun the homes of her people, and may they increase and dwell forever.  God bless Quanah.  I have spoken."

Neeley says a bit later on:  "Quanah frequently visited the town named for him.  At times he dressed in his traditional Indian costume, and just as often, he wore a business suit with a stylish hat and diamond breastpin" (p 229).

Quanah maintained contacts with his Parker relatives in Texas, and this has continued to this day, with an annual Parker reunion in Quanah, to which Indian and white Parkers come.  There is a monument on the court house square commemorating this.  I gather from the story and background Neeley provides that the town was named for Quanah because he was actually held in high esteem, even loved by the people of that area.