An infant was badly burned Thursday evening in an accident with a deep fat fryer. Isaiah Hart, seven month old son of Kristy Hart, was said to be in stable but critical condition in the Alexander Burn Center at Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa. He has second and third degree burns over 18 percent of his body.

According to Hart, the infant was in his walker when he rolled next to the counter where a “Fry Daddy” cooker has just been used. He apparently pulled the electric cord of the cooker causing the cooker to spill the hot grease on him. The grease burned his head, face, and both arms.

The Henryetta Police Department and EMS responded to the 911 call and transported the baby to Henryetta Medical Center. He was transported to Hillcrest by ground as weather conditions were too poor for flying.

Hart said the doctors had discussed sending the baby to a pediatric burn center in Galveston but no decision has been made as of yet. Doctors told Hart there would be scarring but there was no need for an operation at this time.

Hart gave several compliments to the Henryetta Police officers who helped, the EMS staff, and the staff of the Henryetta Medical Center. She expressed her appreciation to them and wanted the people of Henryetta to know “how wonderful they all were to me and my baby.”

Officer Brian Taylor transported Hart to the hospital and Officer Jesse Watson escorted the EMS vehicle. Both were cited by Hart. She also asked for prayers and said she thanked everybody who had shown their concern.

STOLEN SADDLE

A stolen saddle highlights the Henryetta Police Department report for the past week. Bobby Jones, of 704 Gentry, Henryetta, reported the saddle was taken from his barn sometime between 5 p.m. January 6 and 4:30 p.m. January 7. Jones said the back door of the barn and tack room door were left open.

The saddle is brown with a basket weave pattern. It also has the brand burned into it in several places. The value of the saddle was estimated at $1,000.

In other police business, sergeant Ronnie Duke, of the Henryetta Police Department, saw a motor home in an alley on the evening of January 8, 1998. According to the police report, when the driver of the motor home saw the patrol car he attempted to drive away.

Duke reported he turned around and gave chase. Both vehicles ran a red light entering Main Street. Duke reported he turned on his lights when he came behind the motor home and the driver refused to stop. During the chase the motor home drove in the eastbound lane on West Main and passed a car in a no passing zone near the Cow Creek Restaraunt.

The report said Duke chased the vehicle to the Pharaoh Y where it turned south. The driver stopped in Pharaoh where it was discovered there was another tag behind the original tag. The visible tag was registered to a pickup truck.

The driver was charged with attempting to elude, driving under suspension, no insurance verification, and improper tag display. He also had outstanding warrants from Muskogee County and from the City of Tulsa.

On January 7, 1998 the Henryetta Police arrested Marshall Ray Tucker for driving under suspension, no insurance verification, a warrant from Okfuskee County, and a warrant from the City of Weleetka.

On January 7, 1998, Jearol Sorrells was arrested for public drunkenness. He was found walking in traffic. An act of vandalism was reported by Galen Benton. He discovered his pickup truck, which was parked in front of his business, had all four tires slashed.

50 YEARS AGO – 1973

NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE ANYTHING

Henryetta school board members heard from both sides in a dispute between band director Dee Hood and parent Clifford Porter last night, and Superintendent Dr. Raymond Cox went on record as opposing violence to settle differences.

Hood had filed a complaint against Porter on December 22 charging that Porter struck him. A hearing was set for December 28 in municipal court. Porter failed to appear and forfeited $20 bond.

The incident stemmed from a fight in the band room at Henryetta high school in which Porter’s daughter was involved. Hood told the school board that one of the band students, a girl, arrived at the band room early and would not let another student, a boy, inside.

“He went to the principal’s office to get a key, but there wasn’t one. Meanwhile, she had let two other students in, a boy and a girl. The boy let him in, and he went in and pushed this girl around,” Hood said.

“The fight was already over when Melissa (Porter) came in. She got involved in something that was none of her business, and it got started all over again,” he said. Hood said that the boy was punished and he felt that all the students involved in the incident should be punished, too.

He said later on, he saw Porter downtown. “He gave no indication of being mad. I gave him the same information I gave you. I turned to cross the street and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground,” He said. The band director said that his ear began hemorrhaging as a result of the blows he received in the altercation with Porter and that he would have to see an ear specialist. “I’ve talked to a lawyer and intend to have legal action,” he said.

Porter told the board that he felt the investigation of the incident at school had not been thorough enough. “Vulgar words were said to my daughter and I felt that they should know about this,” Porter said.

He said that he saw Hood downtown and “I asked him if he could tell me details of the incident. He said he got involved and had to be punished. He said the boy took his whipping and the girls can take theirs,” Porter told the board.

Porter said Hood was “belligerent” to him and said “I felt like I was being run over and nobody’s going to run over me or my family.”

Dr. Cox said, “I want the community to know that I don’t condone anything of this sort. I want the board to go on record to help Mr. Hood. His job depends on his hearing. I don’t believe anybody has the right to take things in their own hands and strike somebody when they’re not expecting it. “

Porter called the Free-Lance today saying he wished to “clear up” the part of the incident where he struck Hood. “We were face to face during the whole thing. I didn’t hit him after he had turned his back. I don’t want people thinking I would hit a man from behind. Anyone who knows me knows I wouldn’t do that,” Porter said. Cox told Porter that the school board would conduct an investigation into the incident if he wanted them to.

“It’s too late to launch an investigation now,” Porter said. “My daughter is already enrolled in another class.” The board took no formal action concerning the incident. Cox next reminded the school board of the January 23 school election. Voting will be at Webster School and the Presbyterian Church.

He also announced that the North Central Evaluating Committee will meet in Henryetta January 29 for a banquet and meeting with the board and the high school faculty. The board went into executive session to interview three applicants for the post of Henryetta school superintendent.

Dr. Cox said today that the board should be ready to make its selection by the last part of January or the first part of February.

75 YEARS AGO – 1948

TRAGIC DEATH

A horrible death story comes from Okmulgee when a man was hurtled through a window on the sixth story in the petroleum building at 9:00 o’clock Saturday morning. The man was found to be dead, and there was a bullet hole through his head.

The victim was James H. Williams, superintendent of the Pollyanna Oil Company of Okmulgee. He was a married man, and lived at the Beaucaire apartment house.

It seems difficult to learn the facts concerning the tragedy. One theory was suicide, but that does not look at all plausible. He might have shot himself, but could he then have thrown himself through the window.

Murder was indicated, but the officers had not, up to last evening, been able to formulate any coherent account of the crime. The man had not been feeling well, it was said, but appearances indicated murder, rather than suicide.

Examination of his office, the room from which the body came, disclosed evidences of a struggle. The place was in great disorder, and it was plain that an exciting scene had been enacted there.

The elevator attendant remembered that he had answered a call from that floor at a very early hour Saturday morning, and had brought a woman down from there. Whether she had any connection with the crime could not be stated, nor was her identity made known. The same elevator man remembered Williams going down and up during the early hours of the morning.

The body was either naked or clothed only in night apparel. Thus the reporters and officers were facing a mystery during the day. The body was prepared for shipment to Chanute, Kansas, from where Williams came. He was a ten thousand dollar a year oil man, a capable engineer, and trusted executive of the company employing him. Further light may be thrown on the matter later, but the above was all that could be learned at a late hour yesterday afternoon.

STRUCK BY CAR, AGED

MAN LIES SEVERELY HURT

Rev. J.R. Casson was seriously injured at noon yesterday when an automobile struck him. He was crossing the street at the corner of Main and Sixth. Wes Unsell was driving a Dodge touring car, and was approaching the crossing. A lady was crossing ahead of Carson, and Unsell swerved out to miss her. He also had slowed down. Casson started to walk across in front of the car, and this seems to be just what Unsell expected him to do. But Casson must have thought he could not make it, and dodged back. This brought him to where the car struck him.

He was knocked down. A lady in the car with Unsell screamed, and fainted. Special Officer John Plaster was near, and witnessed the entire affair. He at once took hold, and he and Unsell placed the injured man in the car and took him to the Henryetta hospital where he was given emergency treatment and an x-ray photo made of the injured leg. This disclosed the fact that a diagonal break had occurred between the knee and hip. A scalp wound on the back of the head was ugly-looking, but proved to be superficial.

The man was reported to be resting last night, and his recovery will be merely a matter of time, barring complications not now expected.

Many friends hurried to the hospital as soon as it was known that he was hurt. He has lived here for several years, and while he served many congregations as a minister during his younger years, he has been engaged in manual labor here, attending to the janitor work for the First National Bank as well as a church or two. He has a daughter, employed in the post office here, and she is at his side where she is soothing and encouraging him all she can.

Mr. Casson is a very popular man here, and is held in the very highest esteem by many of our best people, who are as much concerned over his welfare as if he were the governor of the state.

The first stories of the accident were wild. It is fortunate that Officer John Plaster was present to know what did occur. He and Unsell went before Mayor Hawes and later to see Deputy County Attorney William where a full statement was made. Mr. Unsell was held blameless, and the affair was just an accident.

100 YEARS AGO – 1923

THE NEWBERRY CASE

A great deal has been said, and much of it both intemperate and ill-advised, concerning the Newberry election. It may easily be that Senator Newberry spent more money than the law allows. It may be that his friends spent money for him – spent money like drunken sailors, as to that. But just think what Newberry had to face!

Henry Ford is doubtless nothing politically, for he was first considered a Republican, and later ran on the Democratic ticket. In fact, he doubtless has very nebulous notions as to whether he is a Democrat or a Republican. And his business organization and vast financial influence constituted a strength that was believed adequate to any possible emergency. He and his army of agents and friends believed that no matter what ticket he ran on he would win in a walk because of the measureless influence he exerted in the business world as the maker of the popular car, and because his sales agencies everywhere would be easily changed into political headquarters, and that without much regard to whether the agents happened to be Democrats or Republicans.

This then was the formidable array that Newberry had to face in that campaign. If he had not spent money and drove a headlong fight against the Ford organization and the Ford wizardry, he stood no chance at all. The fact that he and his friends did put on such a campaign, and matched Ford’s avalanche with another avalanche, and won out, has peeved a very large element of our people everywhere.

But do those critics stop to think what would have been the result if Ford had won? Would there have been a question raised as to whether the election had been fair to Newberry?

Free-Lance is not disposed to favor the winning of a rich man as against a poor man in an election, but money counts for a vast deal in putting over a campaign. If Newberry had used all that money to oppose a poor man, instead of the multi-millionaire Ford, we should condemn him. As it is, we merely think he beat Henry to it, and fought the devil with fire.

MORGAN TODAY

Having everything one wants doesn’t ensure mental happiness. Of times a surfeit of good things in life bring longing and discontent. Mark Bullway, millionaire, stacked his son, Harry, up against just this sort of proposition. But Mark had an object. The muttered curse of a blind man struck by the touring car in which Mark and his son road inspired him. “I hope the young man will get everything he wants,” said the blind man. And Mark Bullway, seeing the light, decided to sicken his son of worldly pleasures by giving him everything. How well the scheme worked is portrayed admirably in the Goldwyn picture, “The Man Who Had Everything,” with Jack Pickford in the leading role. See it at this theatre today.

Also, “I Do!” Harold Lloyd’s newest Associated Exhibitors’ comedy, is for those who are married, those who don’t want to be married. It is also for the children of parents and the parents of children. Outside of these classes, no one will be admitted, when Harold Lloyd will demonstrate, in two reels, the results of a simple, “I Do!” It’s a merry, matrimonial mix-up.