MEMORIES IN FOCUS: Old glory, new glory
Giant American flags, for the first time featuring 46 stars, flew over Marion for Independence Day in 1906 — the day Oklahoma was admitted to the union.
What appears to be an 8-by-12-foot flag waved from a now-removed 16-foot flagpole atop the newly completed county courthouse while another giant flag flew from a smaller pole atop a soon-to-be-forgotten business a block to the west, Palace Livery Barn.
From his huge barn on 4th St., just north of Water St., proprietor F.L. Dockstader provided what the Record of the day termed “steady, reliable drivers and good teams” that leave “nothing undone for the comfort of his patrons.”
“Liverymen may come and liverymen may go,” the Record wrote, “but F.L. Dockstader is always to be found ready to serve the public. He has carriages for funerals at very moderate rates, and does business on the live-and-let-live basis.”
But not for long. With horseless carriages coming into vogue, Dockstader closed his livery barn and partnered just four years later with Will Shanklin to begin operating a motor car agency and repair shop.
Palace Auto Co. sold Ford, Rambler, and Hupmobile cars from another former livery stable, the Rink livery barn at what is now the site of Webster Auto Service on the northwest corner of 1st and Main Sts.
By 1912, however, it had been replaced in that location by a fire station. And in 1909, the view of the courthouse from the old Palace Livery Barn was blocked by construction of the current offices of the Record, which had just merged with another paper, the Headlight, in 1909.
Eventually, the livery barn gave way to buildings that later housed an International implement dealership and now are an outbuilding owned by Lanning Pharmacy.
The U.S. flag, meanwhile, which had had 45 stars for 12 years before adding its 46th for Oklahoma, remained at 46 for only four years, until stars for Arizona and New Mexico were added. The 48-star flag flew for 47 years, until 1959, when stars Alaska and, a year later, Hawaii were added.
Beneath the flag, the courthouse clock — a gift to the county from a Marion civic club — chimed for the first time just three weeks before this photo was taken.
The clock, after being repaired last week, still faithfully chimes every hour.
Last modified Aug. 9, 2018