Ellen Miller was a woman devoted to civic actions from her curiosity in creating Bartlesville’s Johnstone Park to her work in the conservation and research of chook life. Her title of “Bird Woman of Oklahoma” was properly earned.
Ellen Howard Blythe was born in January 1862 in Enterprise, Missouri. She was educated at the Cherokee Female Seminary and taught college for 2 years earlier than marrying William Wallace Miller in Vinita, the place he was in the {hardware} enterprise. Ellen helped survey, fence and panorama the native cemetery. She was Indian Territory’s consultant to the 1893 World Women’s Christian Temperance Union conference in Chicago. After promoting the enterprise, they moved to a ranch on the Caney River in Washington County. Although they later moved to city, William operated the ranch till his dying in March 1909.
In 1895, George Keeler and William Johnston operated a buying and selling publish of the south financial institution of Caney River, the place they seen oil seeping from the floor. With Frank Overlees, they obtained a lease from the Cherokee Nation to drill a properly and employed the Cudahy Oil Company of Chicago. Drilling started in January 1897, the similar month Bartlesville was included with 200 folks.
On April 15, 1897, Nellie Johnstone No. 1 struck oil. It was capped till 1899 when a railway was constructed to supply the means to ship the oil to exterior markets. Its success introduced Frank Phillips, J. Paul Getty, Bill Skelly, E.W. Marland and Harry Sinclair to the space. Nellie, a descendant of Delaware Chief Charles Journeycake, was allotted the land in 1903 and bought it to the metropolis in 1917 for a park named for her father. A singular function is the bridge on the north facet of the park embellished with swastikas, a sacred Native American image earlier than negatively abused by Germany in the Nineteen Thirties. After producing greater than 100,000 barrels, the properly was plugged in 1948 and deserted in 1963. The rig was reconstructed on its unique web site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
In 1920, Miller recommended the bridge being constructed throughout Caney River be designated Memorial Bridge and embody a memorial to World War I servicemen. The county commissioners supported it however had no cash for the pylons and bronze tablets the place the names can be inscribed. Miller received Frank Phillips to donate the cash if she secured the names of the servicemen. There are 1,550 names on the bronze tablets with a Victory Row of timber alongside the freeway on the method to Memorial Bridge.
Miller served seven years in the State Federation of Women’s Clubs as chairman of the Committee on Birds, Flowers and Wildlife. For two years she studied ornithology at the University of Oklahoma. Her 1926 research in the conservation of chook, flower and wildlife in Oklahoma on her 200-acre farm resulted in the state fish and recreation fee making it the nucleus of the Ellen Howard Miller Game Preserve No. 18, and prolonged the protect to incorporate 2,000 acres.
She lectured all throughout America and suggested the proprietor of the Chateau de Saint Hillaire close to Paris how you can construct a chook sanctuary. Miller confused was that no garden was too small, or grounds too giant, for a chook sanctuary. Her farm had a pure rock seaside, an excellent spot for a chook sanctuary, the place about 48 totally different species of birds had been feeding at one time. She maintained that almost all species needs to be protected – a dove might destroy weeds and one quail would possibly eat roughly 1,000 dangerous bugs in a single day.
Ellen Howard Miller died in November 1944 at age 82. Johnstone Park is a remembrance of her neighborhood service, and her title of Bird Woman of Oklahoma honors her dedication to wildlife and feathered folks.
Dr. Edwyna Synar has been writing and talking about Women’s History for over 20 years. Her tales on this collection will be discovered at http://rememberladies.weebly.com. A podcast of “Remember the Ladies Series” can also be accessible on Spotify.
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