The historic Dell Hotel finds new life

by Tawsha Brinkley-Davenport

There is a certain charm when one tackles a historical project. One gets the chance to discover its unique historical connection to the town’s heritage and the lives of those who came before. That is just what the new owners of one of the most well-known landmarks of Broken Bow, the famous Dell Hotel, are discovering.

It was once known as “the tallest building in Broken Bow,” and probably still claims that title. For many years the mysterious building sat empty and unused. Many people in the community wondered if it would ever be restored or opened again. People on the way to the tag agency would peer into a cloudy window seeing tropical house plants and wonder who is tending to them. If one would hold their face really close to the glass near the red painted words “Dell Hotel one could see a wood carved staircase leading straight up to another floor.

Some commented that the building captured a ghostly atmosphere of the past visitors. While others wished it would just be torn down in the name of progress. The majority loved it dearly though and hoped for it to one day have a new life.

Today the latter wish is coming true. After 108 years when it first opened its doors for business, the Dell Hotel will soon open those doors once again.

 

It is finally receiving a complete well-deserved makeover. The new owners Debbie and Danny Adkins are turning it into a 12- bedroom and 12-bathroom wedding and event center, complete with the old wood staircase intact. The bride and her entire wedding party can occupy the facility and decorate it without being disturbed. The new venue will be known as “The Dell.” It won’t be a hotel. But rather it is described, “as a timeless venue that blends historic charm with modern luxury in the heart of downtown Broken Bow.”

The Dell will be a self- check in, self-check-out venue much like how a guest would rent a cabin. The venue will have a grand ballroom leading to a garden for outdoor ceremonies. The indoor venue can accommodate 200 guests with a full kitchen and bar. The venue also has a building for accommodations for inclement weather as well. It will all be private so guests can enjoy their event with one another without the hassle of bellhops and hotel managers disturbing them.

History of the Dell Hotel

There are many stories about how the Dell Hotel came to exist at 26 North Main, over the years. As with any historical building folklore will spin. Some true and some not so factual.

But what is known for sure is this particular building as much as its people has left a lasting legacy of historical importance within the town of Broken Bow.

According to an article in the February 10, 1944 “McCurtain Gazette,” George Washington Johnson and his wife Theo Dell South Johnson along with their five-year-old daughter Carman L (Carman’s name was always spelled with a capital “L” with no period after it”) in tow, decided to move from Fayette, County Alabama where they were born, to  Oklahoma City in 1909. “Broken Bow News,” (October 3, 1979) “Daddy landed us in Oklahoma City from Alabama in a covered wagon. He said, “it w

as a dead city.” Someone told him there if he could drive a straight nail, he could make $4 a day in a town called Bismark, Oklahoma, (what is now known as Wright City). The year was 1909 we traveled there, and he built a shack and started cooking meals and serving drinks.” said Carman L.

George and Theo are described in the McCurtain Gazette (February 10, 1944) article as “two young enthusiastic rugged pioneers from Alabama,” which by all accounts they indeed were. The family lived in the company town there for about a year from all of the records that have been found.

The owners of Choctaw Lumber Company in Bismark wanted to build a second lumber company in a new neighboring settlement which was known at the time as “Newton Tent City,” according to historian Paulette LaGasse.

“Newton was built where an old Native American Village named “Con Chito” once stood. The Sherrill-Holman Drug Store down the street from The Dell sits on an old Indian burial ground,” said Carman L in the (December 14, 1981) “Texarkana Gazette.”

Soon Newton was renamed to honor lumber company owners Herman and Fred Dierks’ hometown of Broken Bow, Nebraska. The owners wanted to sell city lots around the mill. “Broken Bow News” (October 3, 1979), “In Bismark, the company owned everything. (They) my parents, were told over there (Broken Bow) you could have your own business. This was an obvious attraction,” said Carman L,” “Development fever struck him hard and heavy, so impressively he left immediately.”

He saw the opportunity his family was packed, and he moved them to the tent city. The lots were soon auctioned off to the new residents including residents of their sister town of Dequeen. George is buying it as well. “On September 23, 1911, the post office was established and Broken Bow was officially incorporated according to LaGasse.

In 1911 they built the town’s first restaurant. George sold meals and soda from a tent. Then that was replaced by a wood frame and sawdust restaurant.

During this time George would send Theo Dell and Carman L back to Alabama for extended visits to his parents’ house where his parents and siblings still resided. He didn’t have a proper home for his family yet.  They didn’t stay long, and they would be back in Broken Bow.

“McCurtain Gazette,” (December 13, 1981) “We had a cook named Rufus Wilson who stayed with us at Bismark and came with us to Broken Bow. He thought my mother and daddy were just the stuff. He was a first class cook. The town is hard to imagine how it looked then without revealing one of those postcards that one can purchase that show tents, tall pines and big stumps. That was the beginning of the settlement at Broken Bow, known as a tent city. The Johnsons (our family) started as a short order business out of a little shack he built (my daddy),” said Carman L.

“McCurtain Gazette,” (February 10, 1944) “The patronage grew so rapidly that they almost instantly found themselves needing more room, both for accommodations of their patrons, but for also to take care of themselves.”

The restaurant was located south of the Depot next to the Dalton Hotel, both long since gone.

(February 10, 1944) Later that year they bought a boarded up two- story building along the highway at East Main Street it became The Johnson Hotel. They didn’t leave for Alabama after the purchase of the Johnson Hotel, for they had a home now.

According to the 1944 article they opened another restaurant and soda business in the same location as well. Their business began to thrive so in 1915 they decided once again they needed more room.

The Dell Hotel

The construction began on a new hotel located on East Main Street in 1915. George’s parents were still in Alabama with his sister Clara Belle, but his mother had recently passed away, in 1914. George sent a letter telling Clara Belle to tend to their father, but sadly he passed away as well in 1915, and Clara joined the family by train in Broken Bow the same year.

“Texarkana Gazette,” (December 14, 1981)” When the Texas to Oklahoma Eastern Railroad was extended from Broken Bow to DeQueen Arkansas lining up other railroad lines the town really began to boom,” said Carman L.

Instead of building the new hotel out of wood like all of the other structures which were quickly going up in the new town, businessmen were flocking to the new city. George chose brick so it would last. Another contractor was beginning to build a few buildings out of brick as well, R. B. Cheatham. George hired a new brick layer Max Van Hoy who had come to town looking for work from New Mexico.  Max quickly became enamored with the beautiful young sister of George and begin to court her.

According to many love letters that were found inside the Dell Hotel the two fell in love and were married. Theirs was a beautiful love story set amongst the backdrop of the building of a new town of Broken Bow. After their marriage in 1917 the couple move to Harlingen, Texas in 1925 where they lived out the rest of their life.

The hotel was completed in 1916 when the doors finally opened for business. It was a three -story brick building. In honor of George’s wife, he chose her second name Dell as the name of the business. The new building had 24 guest rooms.

They advertised it as having “hot and cold water and bathtubs for convenience.” At their restaurant meals were served family style, according to the 1944 article.

“Daddy served hot meals for 25 cents or three meals and a room for a dollar a day. His cooking filled the dining room every day until he died,” said Carman L.

Guests paid daily, weekly or monthly rates. The Johnson’s became the pillar of the community. Their business thrived even more so as the town grew.

“That hotel and stairway was the biggest thing I ever saw,” said Carman L.

Back then Carman L remembers things in Broken Bow was lawless.

“I wasn’t allowed to get out much, especially on the weekend. There were one or two killings a week. That was not unusual. They just shot ’em dead. In the street if they didn’t like someone. Anyone who wanted to carry a gun could. I was just a little girl. Despite my parents’ caution I witnessed a killing when I was walking with a girlfriend a block from the Dell. We just stood there dumbfounded. I went running home and told my daddy. He told me to just keep quiet. He was afraid they would have me in court as a witness.” She said things became better after the lumber yard donated several corner lots for churches and an entire block for a school.(Dec. 13, 1981) Texarkana Gazette.

Then tragedy struck when on February 6, 1919, a fire started to the left of the hotel at Spencer’s Dry Cleaners. The fire destroyed Spencer’s and three other businesses. In 1919 “The De Queen Bee” stated, “A fire at Broken Bow last week destroyed four buildings. The losses were Spencer’s Grocery, Amos Clark’s Pressing Shop, Dan La Gassa’s meat market and Dozier’s barber shop. The Dell Hotel was also damaged and saved from destruction only after a hard fight.”

After some repairs it was back in business once again.

Notable guests

The history and lore of the Dell Hotel continued over the years. Locals would tell stories about Governor Alfalfa Bill Murry visiting and staying for extended lengths of time in the hotel. Historian Kenneth Hamilton once remarked, “You would see old “Alfalfa Bill” Murray rocking in a rocking chair in front of the Dell in joyful conversations, after he had made his journey to town from Lukfata. Murray was a beloved governor of Oklahoma from 1931 -1935. He later had a house that he lived in outside of Lukfata community for a while, but he came to “town,” often and would stay at hotel.

Linda Lenore Puckett, said, “Gov. Murray, rented the largest room, it was always referred to as the Governor’s suite after his stay.”

The Dierks’ family, Herman and Fred, who helped to build the town, stayed in the hotel many times as they were setting up their lumber business.

Rumors swirled throughout the town that Outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd once stayed there overnight. He signed the register with an alias. Another prominent resident that had a room reserved for him at the Dell Hotel was John Silas Tonihka, a Native American, who made the official first phone call ever in the county from inside the hotel to businessman Jewel B. Callaham. Tonihka was an Eagletown resident and owned a store there. He purchased the first car in Eagletown and was well known as a faith healer. He was also one of the oldest living centenarians in the county, living way into his 100s. But he kept a room at the Dell Hotel when he was in Broken Bow.

Then there are the numerous stories of just young couples staying for a night at the Dell. Such as those who perhaps booked just one last night together not knowing if it would actually be their last before catching the train the next day to go to Camp Pendleton and then on to WWII. Or the many birthday and Christmas celebrations the Puckett kids had at the hotel.

“I remember being invited to Linda Dell’s birthday party at the Dell. It was a nice party. All of our classmates were there, about 15 of us, I know Patricia Deaver was and Nancy Strain, it was fun, cake and ice cream. It was a fun, good time and memory. Good time to be in Broken Bow,” said classmate Joe Hough.

The reason so many stayed at the hotel was for the outstanding hospitality that was shown to them.

“Mr. And Mrs. Johnson know how to make you feel at home and when in Broken Bow whether just for the day, night, week, month or longer. They invite you to make the Dell Hotel your home while you are in this vicinity. They’ll do everything humanly possible to please you each of them assure and then too they are glad to have old friend new ones share the accommodation,” stated the 1944 article.

1940s events

After 28 years of owning the hotel, Johnson had an article published in the McCurtain Gazette in February of 1944 where he expressed that he wanted to find a new owner for the hotel. He was 70 years old at the time and had been in the hotel business for close to 34 years. He felt like it was time to let someone new own his business.

“Mr. Johnson gives it his matured opinion that whoever the purchaser of the Dell Hotel property may be in the event of a deal, the new buyer would have no occasion to regret enjoying the bargain Mr. Johnson has to offer. Many are the delightful parties and functions that have been enjoyed in the past and future years to hold for a continuance of such relations. If you are interested in buying a good hotel property at a bargain says Mr. Johnson, you are invited to contact him in person, telephone him or write him.”

The news article stated, “a young man named Bill Jones was raised by the Johnson’s and he worked at the Dell Hotel as a general helper.” Not much is known about what happened to him. His story is a mystery lost to time.

Their daughter Carman L was a classmate of Milton Puckett, and it was through Milton that she met her future husband Grady C. Puckett, Milton’s brother.  Their father was a Methodist Preacher in Idabel and later in Broken Bow. Grady and Carman married in Broken Bow on April 6, 1924. In 1944 the couple was living in the Gardenia sector of Los Angeles, according to the article.

Like a lot of families during WWII they would leave Oklahoma to seek work in other states like Arizona or California. Carman L and Grady went to California for four years where Grady found work as a ship fitter. He had recently been trained at Folsom Training School in Smithville.

“Their grandson George Albert Puckett, 18, is in the U.S. Navy, while Linda Dell Puckett age 4 is excited to see her grandparents,” states the 1944 article.

“Carman’s husband Grady C. Puckett passed away while George Albert Jr. was in the South Pacific during WWII at the age of 41 from a heart ailment.”

“His body was shipped back to Idabel by train, and he was buried at Denison cemetery,” said historian Terry Passmore.

According “The Daily Oklahoma,” in 1995, George Albert Puckett Jr. told of his service during the battle of Iwo Jima during WWII. “He spent the days of the battle inside a ship where he worked in the radio room next to the war room on the communication ship USS Biscayne.” The article states that George Albert Puckett Jr. wrote his account for the reunion of his ship the mighty “B,” so his daughter Linda Lenore would understand his history. He enlisted “over the objections of his parents, (Carman L and Grady C.) at the age of 17 in California. When the battle was over his ship was en route to the Philippines from Iwo Jima. He joyfully gathered a big bundle of mail from the first plane that got through to the ship. There was a month of copies of his hometown newspaper and letters from family and girlfriends, and there was some correspondence from his uncle and grandfather (George Johnson) informing him that his father (Grady) had died while he was in Iwo Jima in 1944. He will never forget how he cried that day.”

He rejoined his mother in her hometown of Broken Bow. Apparently, the hotel wasn’t sold but given to their only child Carman, after she returned to Broken Bow following the death of her husband. With George Albert Jr. assuming the leadership of the family at the age of 19.

Little did George Johnson know that he wouldn’t be alive much longer either. Sadly, he passed away August 6, 1944, according to his obituary.

An article dated December 23, 1981, from the “Texarkana Gazette”, “Theo Dell had the third floor demolished in 1945 after George W.  Johnson died. She was afraid the foundation could not support a structure that tall.”

The same article states that in 1952 the dining room of the hotel was converted into living quarters where Carman L.  and George Albert Jr. lived who are the managers of the hotel.

Second and third generation owners

The Johnson family began the 1960s with tragedy striking their family. Carman L and Grady C. had three children.  Their two youngest children had attended Broken Bow Schools and were very active in many activities. But they both passed away at an early age. Dwight Milfred Puckett and Linda Dell Pucket Rhoden, each passed away in separate car accidents in the 1960s. Dwight along with another Broken Bow native and Broken Bow High School student Wendell Passmore were driving along a stretch of U.S. Hwy 259 North at 12 a.m. January 27, 1964, when their vehicle wrecked. It was a single vehicle accident. He was 19 years old. Both of the young men were killed.

Linda Dell married Derrell W. “Buddy” Rhoden, July 15, 1961, at Broken Bow. Then the happy couple went on their honeymoon. Soon after the couple returned to college at Southeastern at Durant. They were returning home with a classmate when their car was hit by a truck in front of Denison Cemetery at Idabel on July 21, 1961.  Tragically Linda Dell was the only one in the vehicle that passed away. She was 21 and buried in her wedding dress.

Their remaining child, George Albert Jr. trained as an air traffic controller in Texas. It was there he met his future bride and the love of his life. He wed Beverly Klein in 1969.  She was a widow with three sons.

George and Beverly made a happy life for themselves in Texas. They added to their family three years later welcoming their daughter Linda Lenore to the family, according to his obituary.

The date the hotel officially closed isn’t known. But a friend of the family, Holly Stuart found “a drawer in the hotel that was full of guest register cards.” The last date on those cards a guest had registered was dated 1975.

The last owner of the hotel Linda Lenore commented, “I was born in 1972. I don’t have any memory of 1975, but I believe Grandma Carman broke her hip around that time and couldn’t climb the stairs anymore.”

But according to an article from the “McCurtain Gazette,” (December 13, 1981) Carman L is 77 years old. She is quoted as finally retiring from the hotel business. This would be six years after the last registered guest cards of 1975.

Over the years the bottom half was turned into different stores at different periods of times with wall partitions.

“George Burris had a store in it. Then later Frank Jordan. Nothing was on the top floor. It remained as it was. Different insurance offices occupied it as well,” said county historian Ann Lou Spencer.

George and Beverly made their home in Ft. Worth, Texas until they decided to move to Broken Bow in 1974. Beverly began her teaching career in 1986 as a high school teacher. Her degree she always wanted to have.  She worked as an English teacher in Eagletown for ten years. George Albert Jr. became a well-respected city manager and councilman at Broken Bow. Where he served the city well.

Carman L lived the rest of her life at the hotel. She did many interviews about the early pioneer days of Broken Bow. She was delighted to talk about anything, especially the history of the people and places about Broken Bow. She died on February 24, 1990. With her died many historical facts of the early days of Broken Bow. Over the years Carman L was known as the “living historian of Broken Bow.” Carman L, she wrote letters and kept notes and articles about history. Her mind was full of information. She was one of the last remaining pioneers when she passed away.  Carman L once described the day her father George chose the site of the Dell Hotel. “One day a crowd gathered on a knoll of wooded land and bought small pieces of ground laid out by surveyor’s stakes to build a town. And from the back of a wagon a seven-year-old girl watched as her father picked the spot to make the bid and bought the plot of untamed hillside where he would build the famous Dell Hotel. And Broken Bow was on its way.” Carman L Johnson Puckett.

George Albert Jr.  passed away in 2001. In 2015 Beverly attended a Chamber of Commerce banquet and accepted the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce Heritage Award which honored the Puckett’s family service the family had given to the community for so many years. It was a great honor for her to accept. Beverly passed away in 2018. She was an avid volunteer for Animal Rescue and Kare (ARK) and a community leader through her volunteer work.

Their daughter Linda Lenore is a successful business lady with two children and lives in Texas. She became the last of the family to own the Dell Hotel.

George Albert Jr. is remembered today with The Broken Bow Nutrition Center being named in his honor in 2003.

Today “The Dell,” although will not be an active hotel, its memory and its building will be forever restored and will remain a part of Broken Bow’s rich historic history.

New Owners Interesting Discoveries

Among some of the discoveries the new owners have found among the ruins of the Dell Hotel have been the love letters that Clara Belle sent home to Linda Dell from Max Van Hoy. Also found was Linda Dell’s photograph and scrap book from her wedding and her set of beautiful light blue monogrammed luggage. Newspaper articles, photographs and more.

“We are saving everything we can. For instance, the beautiful windows. Almost all of them are which can be being repurposed. When they built this hotel, they built it very well. The foundation is wonderful. Our plumber crawled underneath and said everything was built so well. George Jr. kept termite treatments updated every year. Everything was protected properly. It would have been a travesty if this property had of been torn down and this history would have been lost forever,” added Adkins.

Final thoughts

The original owners, George Washington and Theo Dell South Johnson, their only child, Carman L’s obituary describes the Dell Hotel as it was in its heyday, “the famous Dell, a place where travelers gathered from the railroad station and livery stables or those who have walked to town through dense forest seeking a home, it became the first of 11 hotels to be constructed before Broken Bow had finished its rush into the lumber industry and became a viable community.”

“We are beyond thrilled over Debbie and Danny Adkins remodeling the Dell Hotel for a wedding and event venue. It is a blessing to our downtown area that they are saving a huge piece of our downtown history in a new business downtown,” said Vickie Patterson, Broken Bow City Manager.

A special honor Adkins is doing is placing historical plaques on the courtyard and the buildings that are going to tell the history of the property. So, guests will know about the property and the people that came before. Copies of the love letters of Clara Belle and Max will be displayed as well in honor of their love story.

“All of these people are just such good, hard-working people. They just took some woods and made a town. That is really something.”

Then Miss Carman L, she knew how to endure all of that heartache, losing her husband, her home in California, WWII, then the loss of her two precious children. her parents. But she learned how to pursue onward. She loved her town and her hotel so very much. Today many of us I don’t believe could go through all of that pain. Carman L kept this place going through sheer determination. Through two fires this place has survived as well. All of this says a lot,” added Adkins.

Perhaps the 1944 article sums it up best as for the future of the Dell Hotel written by the original owner himself, “The Dell Hotel- it is admittedly one of the best Broken Bow landmarks and the Johnsons’ affirm, many are the delightful parties and other functions that have been enjoyed at the Dell in years past and the future years hold for a continuance of such relations. That it will continue for a great many future years in the public service, George Washington Johnson.”