Glenrose Township History As I remember It By Lester Odenwald

On a township map below I have put the names of the homesteaders as I have found them in other Noble County histories. Many of the names are quite familiar to me since I was born and raised in the township. I was born on February 19, 1937 and raised on Section 32, on the Lusk and Hook (later Carifell) farms. Dad was one of the larger farmers in the area and helping in the fields I became familiar with the township and the people, mostly between highway 77 and Billings to the West. Dad bought the Carifell farm, the SW ¼ of section 32 in either 1946 or 1947, and built a new home for us there in 1947. Of some interest was the purchase of that farm. David Carifell had committed suicide and when the farm sold we were living on the farm on the NW ¼ of the same section, owned by Dad’s mother and her brothers and sister and two step brothers. Gordon Hayton, the grain dealer in Billings came to visit and was also interested in the Carifell farm. When he learned that dad wanted the farm he agreed to not bid against him. Dad told Gordon he would have to arrange financing as he only had about 2000 dollars and they expected the farm to bring about $6000. Being the gentleman Gordon was, he said “buy it and I will cover you.” When the purchase was made Gordon paid the balance and made a sales ticket for the balance of the farm as he would for the purchase of a sack of feed bought from his store. No note or formal agreement was made other than a “handshake” agreement. With the bumper wheat crop and the $3.00 per bushel price in 1948, Dad paid off the balance that year. In about 1919 oil was discovered on the Lusk farm on the NW ¼ of section 32 and the farm to the North, by Lou Wentz and McCaskey and the East Billings field, as it was called developed rapidly. Midco, Carter and Tuloma oil companies each joined in the drilling of that field. I have a long, narrow picture of that field that shows over 30 rigs at one time and more were drilled after that. The Lusk farm was homesteaded by my Ggrandfather Alma Green who died in 1896. His widow, Susan Howard Green, married Selah Lusk who had homesteaded a few miles to the West, in Bunch Creek Township. Susan ended up with the land patent on that farm and is the reason the Lusk name shows on the township record below, as the homesteader. Susan died in 1916, before the oil strike, but after she and Selah Lusk had leased both, her and his farms together under one lease. Selah Lusk died in 1917, just before the oil strike, and had two boys, Myron and Melville, and one adopted daughter Deliah May. After the oil discovery there was a bitter fight between Susan and Selah’s children for ownership of that Quarter Section that went clear to the Supreme Court for a decision. The supreme court decision gave each of the Green children 1/5 interest in the farm staked by their father Alma Green and the other 1/5 was split between Myron and Melville Lusk, Myron Lusk’s sons. Deliah May, the adopted daughter was left out completely, as Myron and Melville Lusk was awarded full ownership of the Bunch Creek farm. Rufus Green, one of Susan’s children married Deliah May Lusk, so she also shared in the oil revenue. After the court division in 1920, Grandmother Jessie sold half of the 1/5 (16 acres) of her royalty and her sister Minnie sold all of the 1/5 (32 acres) of her royalty for about $500 per acre to an investor who in turn sold it in blocks of about 3 acres each for $1700 per acre. Rufus and Deliah May kept their royalty and I am not sure what the other brother, Louis, did with his. After the production ceased Dad bought the farm in 1948 for $11,600.00, at a forced division by the heirs (sheriff sale) and had a real mess to clean up to make it farmable.

The East Billings field spread to the north and east through section 29 and ended near there until the Three Sands discovery well was discovered on school land in the NE ¼ of section 16, in June of 1921. (Marked on the map below.) The well across the road on section 15 flowed 3000 barrels per day, as did many in that field. The general area of the Three Sands field in Noble county is outlined near the top right of the homesteaders map below. Three Sands field curved back to the North and West in Kay County and covered an area nearly as big in that county as in Noble County. This was the largest oil discovery in history and some wells are still producing now, over 80 years later. E. W. Marland also had production on 101 Ranch land to the East of Three Sands and had over one million dollars per day income in the 1920s. The Three Sands field name came from the fact that oil was produced from three different sands (zones) all less than 4000 ft. deep. In some places a well was drilled and cased in one zone, the rig “skidded” a few feet and another zone was drilled there. Some wells only a few feet apart produced from each of the three zones. Marland first had a refinery near the 101 ranch headquarters and later at Ponca City, to the North. This is now the Conoco, Phillips refinery. I have the 1930 census records for Glenrose Township transcribed on this web site as well as the Bunch Creek township. In 1930 over 1600 people lived in the Glenrose township, (6 miles X 6 miles) even though no towns were here and most of the workers in 3 sands lived just across the county line in Kay county. There were however several families living in oil camps in the East Billings field. My Ggrandfather, Alma Green, mentioned before, was among the first settlers buried in the Floral Ridge Cemetery, South of Glenrose on the East central side of Section 32. The land for the cemetery was donated by John Owens and Henry Reed, who owned the two East Quarters of that section, when a son of Jack Reed died in 1895. For a while there was an active little community at Glenrose. The school building still stands in 2004, and was built in 1910 on land donated by the Jones family that settled on NW ¼ of section 28. I went to school and graduated from the 8th grade from there, with Henry Riddle and Tom Houska. The school was annexed to Billings in about 1954. The Cecil Grim family ran a station and general store across the highway on the SW corner of Section 21. On the NE corner of Section 29, across west of the school was a small church we attended when I was small, near the present home of Max and Merlene Odenwald. The school acted as the community center, especially during WW2. We had bingo games, dances, plays, box suppers, pitch parties, horseshoe contests, and many other activities there. Several neighbors that attended the little church were baptized in the Homer Main pond on the NW ¼ of Section 29. The church was abandoned in about 1946 and the members mostly joined the Freedom Baptist Church on Section 1 in Bunch Creek township, across the corner from where my other Ggrandfather, Joseph Odenwald, settled and donated land for the Fairview school. That little church building still stands in 2004. My wife, Karen, and I were members of that church, and were baptized in the old Baptist Church building in Billings with several other Freedom Church members in the mid 1950s. There were several other small schools in the NW part of Glenrose township during the oil boom. The Three Sands High school, just to the north of the Township line was reportedly the largest school of its kind in the state at one time.