Mayes Co., OK - Schools: Bald Knob School District #34 ****************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb by: Carolyn (Trogdon) Sheats USGenWeb Archives. Copyright. All rights reserved http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ****************************************************** BALD KNOB SCHOOL DIST. #34 MAYES COUNTY, OKLAHOMA HISTORY AS WE KNOW IT. 2001 Bald Knob School District #34 was a Dependent school starting classes northwest of Pryor. Classes were held there until the spring of 1954 when the school district was annexed to Osage School Dist. #43 four miles west of Pryor. Arlie Armbrister was born in Moore, Indian Territory in 1892. His family came here when he was a baby. They came with two teams of Oxen, one team of mules and a Studebaker wagon. They lost one team of Oxen in the river when crossing. Arlie missed a lot of days of school because when walking across the prairie the Long Horn cattle would chase him up a tree and keep him there two or three hours. He and his brother, Sank was two of the children who attended the first Bald Knob School about 1900 living on the Mayes County Line a mile north on northeast corner of section. Arlie Armbrister was the third man drafted out of Mayes County for WWI. He died the year of 1972 in Claremore, Oklahoma. Burried in the Ross-Mayes Cemetery in Salina. He was one half Cherokee and one half German. His Mother and brother are burried in the Vann Cemetery south of Osage School off of hiway 20 south. Told by his son Lewis Armbrister Claremore, Oklahoma. Ben Tincup is probably remembered for his baseball talents more than anyone from Mayes County. Born in 1894 just across the line in Rogers County, he moved with his family to a farm about nine miles northeast of Pryor. He went to school at Bald Knob, he says. It was about ten miles northwest of Pryor. He says he never did get over the 4th grade. He had a brother who owned a pool hall at Adair in 1910 and sponsored a local team. Tincup pitched every Sunday for the team and became so good That Muskogee of the Oklahoma State League signed him. Baseball came natural for Tincup. That team broke up and Tincup went to Sherman, Texas. He was sold to the Philadelphia Nationals in 1913 and that was the beginning of a major league career. Enoch Osborne was a Carpenter and a resident of the district. Enoch built the new Bald Knob School on the corner, east of the Bald Knob Hill after the school house had burned half a mile north of the hill. Enoch built the Hominy Starr school house and a lot of other buildings around the area. Enoch and Sarah Osborne had three daughters, Vesta, Zettie, Otoime and three sons, Leslie, Ona and Audry. Enoch died in 1950. Told by Ona Osborne's wife Ruby, Claremore, Oklahoma. First Census for Bald Knob School at the Mayes County Court house in 1912 were surnames: Beggs, Calliers, Hinch, Klines, Osborne, Staller, Thompson, Tippie, Brown, Gardner, Haynes, Kassler, Logan, Mason, Qualls and Steffens. Some of the names that lived in the District over the years and some of their off spring still living in the district are: Colvert, Foster, Green, Conatzer, Wallis, Falling, Whitmire, Charles, Baker, Fielden, Ball, Casey, Dennis, Moore, Ramsey, Stephens, Hall, Caha, Large, Vivion, Qualls, Kays, Harris, Allred, Trogdon, Johnson, Lewis McCarty, Griffith, Crow, Miller and Turner, Lee, Webb, Fish, Whiteis, Palmer, Bogart, Young, White, Dobrinski, and Headings. The teachers Beginning in 1920 were: Ester Horr, Nora Lovellen, Clara Littleford, Ethel DeLay, Mrs. E.H. Potts, Willie Keith Eads, Daisy Milner, Thelma Chandler, Thelma Payne, Jodie McClury, Ollie Hazel Sims, Gretchen Flood, Sub-Edith Ramsey Charles G. Hall, Blanche Wallis, Sub- Tressie Henry, Ollie Hazel Huckaby, Sam Bradford, Edna Sullivan, Mary Williams, Bertha Oliver. At the school closing in 1954, there were around 13 children going to school. The school was bought by Howard Trogdon and sold to an individual that moved it to the Grand Lake area. By: Carolyn (Trogdon) Sheats ---