All photos and items on these pages used with the permission of the submitter, copyright holder or used for links to the original site and information!
If you have any information or know any of the people in this photo please contact Rosalyn.
I would like to share a photo I have of a Blackwell all girl orchestra in Blackwell. My mother played cello in the orchestra. As I recall the orchestra was affiliated with either a Presbyterian or Episcopalian church. I truly cannot remember which she told me. I see that Blackwell has neither of these churches in existence today. The picture is from the period 1900 the time period the orchestra is made up of 9 young ladies and a male director. I find it interesting that four girls are shown with violins, my mother with a cello, and one young lady with a mandolin. The other two young women are holding no instruments.
I am the daughter of Ethel (Peck) Slavens. I have been researching my mother's family during the time they lived in Blackwell. My grandfather, Wilson Page Peck, made the land run into Oklahoma in Sep of 1893. He placed his flag on land that was later determined to be school land and he chose not to pay the $150 fee to lease the land. I am not sure when they moved from Paxico, Kansas to Blackwell but it could have been about 1898 when my mother was 12. My grandmother Mary Z. Peck died in Blackwell in May 1913 (I can barely make out the last number on the death certificate.) The address is shown as 312 W. (could be Dewey St.) in the 4th Ward.
A newspaper picture of my Grandfather on the day he was registering for the Cherokee Strip Run. It was taken at Arkasas City I believe. He is the one with the long white beard.
