May 04, 2008 09:47 pm
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At almost 94 years old, there are some things J.A. “Jess” Carlton has trouble remembering. But get him started talking and he tells tales of a lifetime of hard work.
His parents were quite old by the time he was in the fifth grade. Being the only child at home, he had to drop out of school to help care for them and support them, he recalls.
So he went to work and has never been out of a job since.
He went to work for Western Union as a telegrapher and later worked for his third-grade teacher’s husband at his service station. He learned how to change tires and do other work on cars, Carlton said.
Carlton later trained to become a specialist in heating and air and electrical wiring and owned and operated his own business here for many years.
Carlton later became the city’s electric inspector and always dabbled in inventions. A story published in a 1981 issue of the Phoenix reported he had rigged up an automatic watering system for his garden and built an electronic depth marker and fish detector.
When he retired from the city, he used his skills in refrigeration to serve as a volunteer on several air conditioning projects and helped maintain the air conditioning unit as his church until a couple of years ago, he said.
First self-help laundry in town
Jess Carlton and W.W. Hamlin established Muskogee’s first self-help laundry at North 37th Street and West Broadway.
“I had moved into a garage apartment at Hamlin’s on West Okmulgee,” Carlton said. “He had a big garden and a little horse pasture. We built a concrete block building and turned it into a laundry.”
It had 20 wringer-type Maytag washing machines, each surrounded by two large galvanized wash tubs on stands. As he recalls, people were charged $1.50 an hour to use the machines.
Carlton had worked for a couple of years for Sears and when they set up the washing machines. There were not enough complete machines available. Carlton bought parts from distributors in several states to put the machines in working order.
Grill was outlet for pheasants
Carlton was married five times over the years, outliving all of his wives, he said.
One of them was Leona, who got the name “Tootsie” when the operated the Pheasant Grill on South B Street.
Carlton had become partners with a man who lives south of Muskogee and they owned 900 laying pheasants at one time.
Carlton and Leona opened the grill next to their little grocery store and included pheasant dishes on the menu there.
“We had people coming from everywhere to eat pheasant under glass,” Carlton said. “A lot of people came from the fairgrounds to eat there.”
She got her nickname from customers, he said.
Teacher, her husband influenced his life
Carlton’s recollection of his third-grade teacher and her husband remains vivid today.
He remembers gathering bouquets of wildflowers along the railroad tracks and taking them to her at school.
And he remembers how her husband not only taught him what he needed to know in the service station business but also piqued his interest in radios.
He taught Carlton how to build crystal radios. A little later, Carlton got a chemistry set and began building more sophisticated crystal receiver sets.
“I made them by the dozen and gave them away,” he said.
Carlton continued his interest in radios as a ham radio operator — W5WI were his call letters for decades.
Q&A
How did you come to be an Okie from Muskogee?
“It’s been so long ago I don’t remember.”
What is the most memorable thing to happen to you since coming to Muskogee?
“I flew the B-24 Liberator and B-24 aircraft for about three years in test flights. That’s the most memorable thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. When you take off and you see that you are flying, the higher you go, the closer you feel to God. When you get up to 25,000 feet, it makes you just feel like you could reach out and touch the face of God.”
What person has had the most influence in your life?
“J.R. Wright. he was my banker at First National. He gave me lots of advice on how to use money, how to make money, how to spend it and how to save it.”
What do you like best about Muskogee?
“I just love it here, it’s just home.”
What would make Muskogee a better place?
“I wouldn’t be able to answer that.”
How would you sum up Muskogee to a visitor?
“It’s home, it’s a place you can call home and be at home.”
Meet Jess Carlton
AGE: 93.
HOMETOWN: “I was reared around northeast of Farmersville, Texas, until I was about 14.”
EDUCATION: Started fifth grade.
CAREER: Established Carlton Refrigeration and Electric in 1936.
CHURCH: Charter member of Immanuel Baptist Church.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
Photos
Jess Carlton shows photos of many of the memories he has accumulated over nearly 94 years.