Chapter 20

FROM REDMOON TO STRONG CITY

After the land opening, James Hammon was sent to the Red Moon Agency, near the future site of Hammon, Oklahoma, to build a reservation school and to teach the Cheyenne and Arapaho’s how to farm.

  A second Red Moon School was established near Rush Creek in the Red Moon community.  This would be the school Bill Anderson’s children attended.

The Andersons drove a buggy to school with children Orren, Lillie, Virgil and Jack. The Cheyenne Sunbeam paper reported “The team which the Anderson family drives to school ran away Thursday evening whilst going home. The buggy tongue came out letting the team loose and probably saving the occupants of the buggy from serious injury. The horses ran into a wire fence and were captured”. (We assume they were referring to Bill’s family).

In 1916, the Anderson family moved to Strong City, Oklahoma. A year later the Red Moon school closed. Strong City showed enormous growth as the railroad greatly expanded their trade area. A million dollars worth of broom corn was shipped out in 1913. Strong City became the “Broom Corn Capital of the World”. The local hog market also flourished.

Strong City had grown in population to around 600. It became the largest town in Roger Mills County and one of the largest in Western Oklahoma. In 1915 Cheyenne, Oklahoma was the county seat for Roger Mills County. Since Strong City had a railroad and Cheyenne had none, a group of Strong City business men thought the county seat should be moved to Strong City, “so the fight was on”. The Cheyenne business men conceived the ideas of building a short line of railroad from Cheyenne to Strong City, about 7 miles. Their rolling stock consisted of one obsolete freight engine, one old freight car and one caboose. The train ran forward to Strong City and reversed to Cheyenne. Primitive as it was, it saved the day and the county seat remained in Cheyenne.

1917-18 were “tough times” for the Anderson family. Tommie cooked and took in borders, and to help ends meet Bill took on the job of Manager of the Herring and Young Grocery Store. The pay for being the Deputy Sheriff was probably around $30.00 a month and with seven children money was scarce.

Crew at the Herring & Young store in Strong City, Oklahoma 

Their son Virgil joined the army as a Private in the 23^rd Infantry, U.S. Army. Very shortly after enlisting he caught the flu and then pneumonia. He died on May 29, 1917.

  

During the flu epedimic of 1918, 2,500 Oklahomans died. Tommie Lee Anderson had a reputation as a nurse and was often available to help neighbors when the doctor could not travel to Strong City from Cheyenne. The Cheyenne Star published this story about Tommie, “An able nurse, Mrs. Bill Anderson, as was the custom among the friends of the area, had been at the Caffeys to help out in any way she could (Paulyne Caffey died of flu on Christmas morning) the snow had reached almost blizzard proportions and it was impossible to travel the roads by car or wagon, so no one could take Mrs. Anderson home. Tommie Anderson walked the mile or so to her home in Strong City. A pretty little girl, Georgia Faye Anderson, watched out the window Christmas morning as her mother neared home – fighting her way through the heavy snowdrifts”.

                                                 Tommie Lee Anderson