Another Cemetery Fundraising lunch has come and gone.  Thanks to the hard working volunteers and the good turn out on the part of both the townsfolk and the out of town visitors, it was a success.  The menu consisted of pulled pork and sausage with sides of potato salad and coleslaw.  Desserts for both the lunch and the bake sale were supplied by the local women.  Many donations were received by mail, sent in by people that are making their homes elsewhere but still take the time to help out with the upkeep of the Ryan Cemetery.  The contract for mowing this year has been awarded to the Wesley Martin family.  Several years ago they worked for the contract holder and proved themselves more than capable of doing a good job.  I’m sure that their standards will be maintained.  Dustan Bryant did the cooking again this year, I think that most folks will agree that Dustan might have figured out how to smoke meat.  Ol’ Dusty spent most of Saturday night and early Sunday morning tending to his cooker, so if you get the opportunity, say thank you to Dustan for the fine work that he does every year.  Councilwoman Tammy Cotton and her band of merrymakers spent a lot of time and effort planning and preparing for this event and then spent a lot of Saturday evening cooking for the bake sale.  I never did see this rum cake that she was talking about.  A special thank you goes out to Tammy’s friend Holly for all of her hard work.  Holly comes to Ryan every year to lend a helping hand with the event.  After the meal and bake sale, the names of the raffle winners were drawn by an honest disinterested third party.  Each winner got a $25  gift certificate to one of the local businesses, if you won you will be notified or you can check with Town Hall.

 The summer reading program will be starting on June 16th and will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm at the Ryan Sr. Citizens Center.  Mrs. T. J. Dewbre said that you can go to her Facebook page and find the Amazon wish list if you would like to help out, also volunteers are always welcome and they can use more arts and crafts supplies.  Lunches will be provided.  June’s theme will be insects so the kids will be learning more about all the creepy and crawly things.  Most of the activities will be at the Sr. Citizens Center but there will be ample opportunity to be going outdoors.

 I went looking for further inspiration for something for this week’s column and I found it in the guise of a fellow named Mike Rowe and a show called “Returning The Favor”.  His description of the show is that they go out looking for do-gooders.  They search out, celebrate and try to understand people whose efforts are spent trying to make the lives of people in their communities better.  I have watched veterans helping other vets.  One woman that owns a restaurant and during the pandemic she had to close, so her and her friends handed out meals to people that might miss a meal otherwise.  Another woman that is rescuing both urban children and abused animals.  Teaching children responsibility and the animals to trust humans again.  One episode was about a man that converted his family owned whiskey distillery so that they could supply hand sanitizer.  All of these folks function on donations and that is where Mike and his group come in, sometimes they give them equipement and sometimes money and sometimes both.  If you are  a sucker for a feel good story, this is a good place to go.

 Be kind to one another.

 I had the opportunity recently to look through the book collection of a friend and fellow bibliophile.  I found books on religion and philosophy.  There are American classics like Twain and Faulkner.  The books that I am looking at are not his entire library, only the ones that he left here in Oklahoma in the care of another friend.  It is always interesting to see the path that someone takes by looking at what they have collected over the years.  The first book from his collection that I read is one that I read years ago.  “The Man Without a Country” by Edward Everett Hale.  It’s  a small book that was quickly read, but I enjoyed reacquainting  myself with it after so many years.  The next book that I borrowed is “Sanctuary” by William Faulkner.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  I also spotted a Winston Churchill memoir that will come home with me at some point.  I might have taken the Churchill this time but I had just finished “The Citizens of London” and that is enough of World War II for now. The Citizens of London tells the story from a point of view that was different than any  that I had read.  In retrospect it’s easy to say that they should have done this or that but at the time they were dealing with issues that were either new to them or on a scale that they had never seen.  Leaders of nations are by their nature used to being in charge.  Churchill felt that since Britain had been in the war the longest that they should be given priority.  Certainly had they not stood at the pointed end of the spear for so long and for the most part alone, the world might be a very different place.  Great Britain held out long enough for the United States to finally get involved.  Of course once the United States became involved, President Roosevelt felt that he should be in charge.  Joseph Stalin wanted everything his way or the Soviet Union was simply going to do their own thing.  It might seem like I am dogging these men but given the size of their egos and the scope of their undertaking, it amazes me that they worked together as well as they managed.  Then you have the generals.  I think putting General Eisenhower in charge of the allied armies was a stroke of genius.  I cannot think of anyone else that could have managed the officers with which he had to fight a war.  Each of them was convinced that he alone had the answer of how to win the war.  “The Citizens of London”  by Lynne Olsen is a good book and tells a great deal more than I covered in this description.  It is well worth the reading for all of the students of history out there.  The book also covers the interaction of the American service personnel and the citizens of Great Britain that lived around the bases that sprung up seemingly out of nowhere in preparation for the D-day invasion.  In many cases the families had lost sons earlier in the war.  Given the chance, I think that you would enjoy this book.

Alison Levi Keller was born in June of 1867 in Jacksonville, Calhoun County, Alabama.  A. L. Keller’s family moved to Cook County, Texas when he was eight years old and then in 1879 they moved to Holder, Indian Territory in what is now Marshall County, Oklahoma.  In early January of 1907, A.L. Keller along with his son Jesse and friend Bob Mitchell came to Jefferson County, Indian Territory to work a farm that was leased from the Indian landowner.  In early summer Mrs. Keller, Mrs. Mitchell and the remaining children joined the original party at the camp that was established on the leased land.  A.L. Keller and Bob Mitchell had built  a temporary home, a wood sided tent was put up and used until a more permanent house could be built.  It was in this tent that the first child was born at their new home.  Allen Alexander Keller was born to Rosie and A.L. Keller five months before Oklahoma became a state and officially joined the union as the forty sixth state in these United States.  Allen’s sister, Annie, told the story that it was raining so hard the day Allen was born that the family ducks were swimming inside the tent.  A.L. Keller bought the original lease and added more land over the years.  He farmed the land until his death in 1943.

     Upon the death of A.L. Keller, his son Allen and his wife Nila bought the farm from Rosie Keller.  Allen Keller had started helping his father on the farm at a very young age.  He told his family about plowing with a team and having difficulty throwing the plow into the ground because he was so small.  His father would hitch the team and take them to the field and get Allen started.  By being thrifty and working hard Allen Keller  added more acres to the farm that his father had built.  Over the years I have heard stories about Mr. Keller and his being a hard worker always came up in the conversation.  Besides being a good farmer, Allen was a skilled carpenter and often had to go to where the work was.  He worked not only in Oklahoma but also in Texas and New Mexico.  Like many people, Allen Keller worked hard to raise and provide for his family.  Other than two years when he “ran off” to California and Oregan, he lived on the farm his father established in Jefferson County from 1907 when he was born until 1996 and farmed for most of those years.  

     In 1981, Allen’s daughter and her husband Lane Corley, moved back to the area and became more involved with the farm and in 1993 became owners of the Little Dipper Ranch, located southeast of Ryan, Oklahoma.  When it was established in 1907, A. L. Keller grew cotton, oats and sorghum, I know that Allen farmed as well but have found no record of what he grew,  The present day owners, Loretta and Lane Corley raise beef cattle and through the years have continued to do what her father and grandfather did before them.  For three generations, the family has been good stewards of the land and have added to the original holdings that started with a small Indian lease of two hundred acres.

     The first permanent structure built was a barn in 1907.  Windmills were added in 1930 to pump  water for the cattle and in 1950, Allen built a new barn and a house.  The first is still in use as a horse barn and the house is still being lived in today.