At right:  Henry was co-owner of the well known grocery store on Barron Street, "Blue Front " Grocery.  In Jan. 1904, his partner sold his interest to Ed Lincoln, one of Preble County's infirmary directors. Henry remained co-owner.

At left: Eight months later, Sarah Stephens sold their home in Eaton. By this time she probably knew what happened to Henry.  E. D. Lincoln, Henry's recent partner at Blue Front grocery, bought the Stephens house on E. High St. from Mrs. Stephens.

At left:

In May 1904, Henry was chosen to be a director of a local cemetery, the time having expired for the current one.  (Which is somewhat of an  ambiguous way to put it.)

HENRY STEPHENS'S MYSTERIOUS DEPARTURE FROM EATON

In the 3rd week of Jan. 1907, Henry Stephens suddenly ran off, without explanation, abandoning his grocery store on N. Barron Street, as well as his home and family.  But not before withdrawing all he had in the bank: $480.  The Stephenses were a well-known couple in Eaton and had many friends; nobody could imagine why Henry would have done this.

[The cause for Henry's departure will be revealed in the next section when his son Ralph gets a job at the Western Hotel in Oklahoma City.]

It's not known at this time where Sarah Stephens went.  Ralph would have been about 14, his sister Nellie would have been around 16 or 17, and Grover would have been around 20 to 21.

So far, a record of her death has not been located.  She may have moved back to her hometown of May in Christian Co., Illinois.

By 1917, Ralph, Amanda, and their baby son Robert moved from Park Ridge, near Chicago, to Oklahoma City where they lived at 1504 W. First street. 

Ralph and Amanda's second son, Vincent Ralph Stephens, was born in Oklahoma City on Jan. 24, 1917. 

Ralph's WW1 draft registration on June 5, 1917 shows he was in the hotel business at 810 W. Main St.  He says he was self-employed and claimed exemption with a wife and children.

Ralph's father, Henry Stephens, had moved to Oklahoma in 1907 after his hasty departure from Eaton, OH, remarried in 1908 and opened the Western Hotel in Oklahoma City at 810 Main St. in 1914. 

Ralph took a job there by 1917.  (This may have been the reason for their move to Ok. City.)
 

By 1920, Ralph was the Assistant Manager at the Western, and had moved to a new home at 23 W. 10th.  Now they even had a phone.

THE STEPHENSES ON THE 1920 CENSUS, OKLAHOMA CITY

The Stephenses were enumerated at 23 W. 10th.--the same address  given in their 1920 city directory listing. 

Ralph was listed as being a hotel proprietor, which usually means the owner, and it's possible that he was at least part owner.  The "R" to the left of Ralph's age means they rented their home.  Their sons, Robert  and Vincent were 4 and 2 months old, respectively.  Everyone in the family was born in different a different state.

1920 U.S. Census, Oklahoma City
Ralph, Amanda, Robert and Vince (Ralph)

 

HENRY STEPHENS,  FOUNDER OF THE WESTERN HOTEL ON MAIN STREET, OK. CITY

(Not an actual sign.)

At Left: A view of Broadway Ave looking north in 1907.
Postcard photo from eBay seller.

On April 5, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt traveled through Indian Territory on his way to a Rough Riders reunion in San Antonio, Texas, making short speeches at several towns along the railroad between Vinita and Durant.  After attending the reunion, Roosevelt returned to Oklahoma Territory, arriving in Frederick on aboard a private five-car train on Saturday, April 8, 1905. 

While giving a speech to the thousands gathered to greet him, he noticed Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and called him to the speaker's stand to shake his hand. Immediately after the speech, the hunting party left for the Big Pasture, an area of 480,000 acres of open range in present Tillman, Comanche, and Cotton counties.  When he departed on April 13, 1905, the President promised to make Oklahoma a state. That is a promise that he kept more than two years later on November 16, 1907, when Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma, becoming the 46th state of the Union. Oklahoma was the only state admitted to the Union during Roosevelt’s presidency.

Info and photo courtesy of Tillman County Chronicles

HENRY STEPHENS'S SECOND MARRIAGE

Almost two years after his mysterious departure from Eaton, Henry turned up in Oklahoma.

Henry settled in Frederick, Tillman Co, Oklahoma and there, on Dec. 17, 1908, he married Rena Hinshaw of Tuttle, Grady Co, Oklahoma.  Henry and Rena were both 43, according to their application for marriage, license and certificate. 

Bird's-eye view of street and commercial buildings at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the 1910 Glidden Tour. Sign for Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. in foreground. Spooner & Wells, Inc., photographers, Detroit, Mich.  Detroit public library digital collections

View of Main Street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the 1910 Glidden Tour. Mellon's department store and the Kerr Dry Goods Co. in background
Detroit public library digital collections

 

View of A street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the 1910 Glidden Tour  Detroit public library digital collections

 

HENRY AND RENA HINSHAW STEPHENS ON THE 1910 CENSUS, OKLAHOMA CITY

The record shows that this was a second marriage for both of them, and they had been married for a year.  Rena was the mother of two children, both living at the time.  One was her son Virgil Hinshaw from her previous marriage; Virgil was 15, and her and Henry's daughter Agatha was 2 months old.  Rena was born in Texas, her parents from Missouri, her son born in Missouri.

This ad appeared FIFTEEN times in the month of Dec. 1918.
It was the only ad run that month except for the one
on Dec. 24, 1918 shown below it.

This article shows that Henry Stephens was the hotel's owner.  It is a listing of places citizens could register to vote.  The list was grouped by district, each district listing the different locations by voting precinct number. The article has been edited to show the relevant Precinct, 12, where Henry Stephens's Western Hotel is listed.

There was another Western Hotel before Henry's, but at a different location.  The first Western Hotel in Oklahoma City was one found at 216 California Avenue in the early 1900s.  A short, one paragraph article in the DAILY OKLAHOMAN on Aug 27, 1902 stated:

[The Western Hotel] ...is quickly becoming one of the most popular $1.00 a day houses in the city. The new managers have gotten things in good runing [sic] order and are making it quite pleasant for their guests, which is attested by the house being full all the time.  If you want a pleasant room and good board stop at the Western Hotel, 216 California.

The new managers it mentions were probably J. H. Emitt and Jud Cogswell, mentioned in this next article:

On Jan. 20, 1903, the DAILY OKLAHOMAN reported that..

Policeman J. H. Emitt last evening assaulted Jud Cogswell at the Planters Hotel, on the corner of Robinson St. and Reno Ave.  The encounter resulted over the unpleasant business relations between the men as partners in conducting the Western Hotel on California Ave.

The next day, Jan. 21, 1903, this notice appeared in the DAILY OKLAHOMAN--Cogswell was out:

Notice: All bills due to the Western Hotel will be paid to J. Emitt only, as for Cogswell is no longer connected with the business.  J. EMITT

The hotel apparently then closed at some point for around three weeks until a one-sentence notice was published in the Feb. 11, 1903 DAILY OKLAHOMAN stating:

The Western Hotel has been reopened to the public by J. M. Emett and is ready to accommodate the public.

On May 3, 1904, an ad in the DAILY OKLAHOMAN indicated a change of ownership had transpired:

WESTERN HOTEL, 216 W. California announced newly furnished rooms, excellent board, $1.25 per day.  Mrs. Mauldin, Proprietor, G. A. Yantis, Manager.

This Oct. 19, 1904 article signaled the end for the WESTERN HOTEL, but in name only, as it continued to operate as the Pearson House.

The photo below appeared in the April 2, 1934 OKLAHOMA NEWS in a full page feature consisting of several photos (which were old even in 1934) submitted to the paper by various members of pioneer families in the area.

ONE MORE WESTERN HOTEL

In the period from around 1908 to 1913, a hotel named the "GREAT WESTERN HOTEL" on Nobel St. is mentioned now and then in articles relating to persons who have died or have various other misfortunes who lived at the hotel mention it but leave off "GREAT."  There were a few basic ads as well, such as:

GREAT WESTERN HOTEL--Room and board, $5 per week; steam heat.  318 W. Nobel. 

There is also a GREAT WESTERN HOTEL SUPPLY company in the area that advertised profusely in the early 1910s.
 

Stephens owned the Car Barn at least up until the time of the March 1922 kidnapping of one of its lunch hour waiters.

This wasn't the only Puritan Cafe around, there were many so-named eateries scattered all round Oklahoma City, in an approximate 50 to 75 mile radius.  Puritan was a very popular name in the area, not just for cafes and restaurants.  It's doubtful that it was a chain, as there appears to be no similarity among the various ads, except for the name.  Hundreds of ads for a Puritan Cafes or restaurants from 1921 through 1923 appeared in newspapers at these other places: Bennington, Bristow, Coweta, Durant, Eufaula, Haskell, Holdenville, McAlester, Muskogee, Okmulgee, Pawhuska, Poteau, Slick, and Wilson, and just about each one was for a cafe in that town.

But no ads (except the one to the left) have been found for the Puritan in OK City until Sept. 9, 1921. 

THE FOUNDING HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOC.
From their website at
https://www.restaurant.org/About/Who-We-Are/History.

When egg brokers try to demand a price of 65 cents a dozen, the year-old Kansas City Restaurant Association, one of the restaurant industry's earliest professional associations, organizes an egg boycott. Egg prices plummet to 32 cents. The seeds of a national movement are sown.

Kansas City restaurateurs launch a national organization, holding the first meeting of what is today's National Restaurant Association on March 13 in Kansas City. The fledgling organization represents an industry of 43,000 restaurants. [Membership consisted of male Americans.]

Prohibition begins in 1920, kicking off a 13-year ban on alcohol sales. Restaurants used to serving free sandwiches with 5-cent beers develop new marketing tactics. Despite Prohibition, the industry thrives, riding a wave of national prosperity. Howard Johnson's opens its first franchises, White Castle's 5-cent burgers grow popular, and Willard Marriott opens his first Hot Shoppes.

The growing National Restaurant Association moves its headquarters from Kansas City to Chicago.

Prohibition ends, but the Depression is in full swing. Congress's National Recovery Act requires each industry to prepare a "Code of Fair Competition" in 1933. The National Restaurant Association quickly complies. Membership doubles. In an appeal to customers in bleak times, the National Restaurant Association tries out two advertising slogan: "Enjoy Life — Eat Out More Often" and "Take Her Out to Dinner at Least Once a Week."

He packed up his wife and three children and, as Stephens put it, "left town owing everybody."

When they left Oklahoma he took the family to Dallas where they saw a "Pig Stand with what looked like a thousand cars around it.."  Pig Stands... were the forerunners of our drive-in restaurants.
 

THE DALLAS PIG STANDS
"People with cars are so lazy they don't want to get out of them to eat."  -- Jesse Granville Kirby

Portions below from Texas Monthly, "The History of the Pig Stands" - America's motor lunch by Daniel Vaughn, The American Drive-in" by Michael Karl Witzel (1992),  Car Hops & Curb Service by Jim Heimann (1996).      https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/jesse-kirby-reuben-jackson/ HEMMINGS CLASSIC CAR Jesse Kirby & Reuben Jackson FEBRUARY '18 By David Conwill from the February 2018 issue of Hemmings Classic Car          

It's now been nearly 100 years that a Dallas institution built its mighty restaurant empire on the foundation of a simple Tennessee-style barbecued-pork sandwich called the “Pig Sandwich.”  The Dallas-based chain that started it in the early 1920s spread like wildfire to quickly become a nationwide franchise.  But despite its meteoric expansion and the cult-like obsession the general public had with it, the Pig Stand franchise faded out like quietly and gradually, like the twinkling stars at dawn, but dragging out over decades.

"Credit is often given to Kirby for creating the first drive-in restaurant. And rightly so, if for anything, the fact that the concept of carhops was first introduced at the original Pig Stand. There are plenty of other firsts attributed to them too: the first onion ring, the first chicken-fried steak sandwich, Texas toast, neon lights. Some of those claims might be hard to prove, but they all serve as anecdotal evidence of Kirby and Jackson’s innovativeness."

Kirby and Jackson rarely get credit for it today, but they may have been the first to invent the restaurant chain as we know it. Howard Johnson restaurants are generally given the credit for developing the concept, HOWEVER,

...the second Howard Johnson was a franchise location when it opened in 1932; by that time there were already more than a hundred Pig Stands, and the company had been offering franchises to hopeful entrepreneurs since 1925**. As Kirby once cleverly told someone of opening a franchise,

Most agree that the year was 1921, but a few records suggest it may have been in early 1922. Court records from a lawsuit against Dixiepig Stand from 1929 list the original opening date as April 15, 1922, and an ad celebrating the achievements of the company [seen below]  that had “opened less than thirty months ago” ran in the Dallas Morning News on October 12, 1924.

[The math:  10/12/1924 - 24 months = 10/12/1922 - 6 months = April 12, 1922.  Almost exact date referred to in the 1929 lawsuit.]

**The same 1924 ad reveals that the franchisee opportunity was already in operation.    

Read more about the history and eventual decline of Kirby's Pig Stands at
Texas Monthly, "The History of the Pig Stands" -- America's motor lunch by Daniel Vaughn                  
 

It was "Less than thirty months ago" (no earlier than mid-April of 1922) that Kirby started his empire, according to this Oct. 12, 1924 ad below, with one stand on the Dallas-Ft. Worth Pike.

Some parts of this ad (mostly the very small texts) are digital recreations of the original which appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Oct. 12, 1924.  The original ad was spread across the center fold and was nearly illegible at that area.  The text size of the main column was extremely small compared to the rest of the ad, so the text has been provided here larger in relation to the whole ad.  Fonts are an exact match or nearly exact.  The graphics are the originals, cleaned up.  The NuGrape and Edelweiss/Orange Crush ads were not part of this ad. They were added to fill the space created by the longer center column.  Those are from a 1925 Pig Stands ad of similar arrangement.  The Pig Stand ads featured different vendors at different times.

Dallas Morning News - Oct. 12, 1924

    And now Mr. J. G. Kirby, the founder and the active head of the Pig Stands Company (incorporated under the laws of Texas) finds his company one of the biggest customers of the jobbers and wholesalers who operate in this territory.  Pig Stands are operating most successfully in other States not only of the Southwest but also of the Southeast and the North.  The "sign of the pig," guiding the public to the places where the world's most delectable sandwich may be bought, is seen in Dallas, Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Waco, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Beaumont, Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, Tulsa, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Fla., and New Orleans.  Every week finds calls coming in for Pig Stand rights to operate in new fields.

      Mr. Kirby has followed the soundest of basic business principles in establishing and operating this concern.  In the first place, he sells a distinctive and highly meritorious  product and has avoided a multiplicity of side-lines; in other words, he has "stuck to the one thing."  And, having created a demand, he buys advantageously in large quantities.  He holds down operating and "overhead" expense by specializing in one thing and by doing business in simple, inexpensive buildings of standard design.  While they are small and simple in pattern they are by no means unsightly "shacks" or in any way detrimental to their neighborhoods.

    To give the reader an idea of how this business has grown, the ten stands alone are operated by sixty-five employes.  The Pig Sandwiches consumed in Dallas each week use 50,000 Kleber buns (made especially for Pig Sandwiches, according to specifications).

    The customers drink more than 14,4000 bottles of Coca-Cola products each week (not including other drinks).  With the Pig Sandwiches sold in Dallas each week there are used 10,000 pounds of the finest U. S. government inspected meats.  Incidentally, this company has an expert meat buyer who spent six years in the largest packing plants.  All meats used by the Pig Stands Company in Texas are selected by him.

     Pig Stand meats are cooked in Mazola.  They use in Dallas 3,640 bottles of Budweiser weekly.

    They buy from Dallas jobbers 500,000 to 1,000,000 paper napkins at a time and between 35,000 and 50,000 paper bags.

    The sour relish, which gives zest to the Pig Sandwich and which Mr. Kirby concocted himself, is made under his own specifications and delivered in fifty 5-gallon lots at a time.  When Mr. Kirby first started his business he made this relish at home in his own kitchen, but the demand soon made this impractical.  The pickle factory which now has this contract manufactures the relish under rigid specifications as to purity and quality.

    The Pig Stands Company takes this opportunity to thank the public for its most generous patronage, and wishes the readers of this paper to know the concerns of whose products enter into the world's most delectable sandwich.  They're represented on this page.  The best is none too good for its customers.

LESSONS LEARNED IN DALLAS
If there was anything that Ralph Stephens would have learned from his experience in Dallas and the success of Kirby's Pig Stands, it probably would have been the popularity of drive-in curb service, a place with ample parking, advertising, a limited menu consisting of one to very few specialties, use of the best meats, the popularity of the barbecue sandwich,  and a tasty yet unique sauce to top it with.  Kirby used a sauce based on sour pickle relish.

But one thing he surely didn't get from Kirby's operation was a just plain name.  Ralph Stephens had a better idea--a catchy, unique name.
 

THE FIRST GOODY GOODY BARBECUE, HANNIBAL MISSOURI

Ralph may have bought a Pig Stands franchise, but the reporter wrote "He had never gone back to Dallas." As if Ralph made a reference to originally going only to set up the stand in Little Rock, and perhaps would then go back to Dallas to continue working there for the company.  It could be that his job was to oversee stands in various towns around that part of the country. 

Either way, it is clear he would be working for an employer, due to his conversation with his father-in-law about starting an "...enterprise of our own, without having to work for someone else" which is what a Pig Stand would have been.

Also, his decision to go with BARBECUE could only have come from his exposure to it in Dallas; none of his prior restaurants mention barbecue.

No doubt his father-in-law, a carpenter, would have played a major role in designing and building the stand.  Notice the similarity of the "Goody Goody BARBECUE" sign to the Pig Stand signs, and although made of wood instead of brick, the similar design of the stand itself to accommodate curb service.

Goody Goody Barbeque, Hannibal, Missouri
Photo courtesy of RetroMetro Oklahoma City

Stephens opened his barbecue stand at 2629 St. Mary's Avenue in Hannibal, Missouri and named it Goody-Goody Barbecue.  Their residence was at 2520 Chestnut.

Evidently his idea to start his own restaurant in Hannibal came soon enough to make it into the 1925 city directory.  It doesn't name the restaurant; it's possible that he hadn't yet thought of a name by the time the information for the 1925 directory was gathered.  But it is more likely that the early Oklahoma City directories only provided the owner's occupation and did not provide the name of the business, as others were listed this way as well.

RALPH IS LURED TO FLORIDA, GIVES UP ON HIS HANNIBAL GOODY GOODY

Clearly, the catchy name and the Pig Stands ingredients for success weren't enough.   Ralph didn't figure on the cold weather so far north.  In Dallas, it wasn't a major factor, but in Hannibal, Missouri, cold weather isn't the best condition to be eating outside in one's car.

Business boomed immediately, but cold weather brought a sharp drop in the drive-in business, Stephens recalled.

"We closed, and being sort of soldiers of fortune, we took off for Florida. 

Florida was in the midst of a land boom in the early 1920s; rich investors were heading there in droves to buy up land.  The state would be booming with travelers, and surely the weather in sunny Florida would be a paradise for drive-in dining with curb service.  But in 1925, the land boom had peaked.

THE SECRET WEAPON -- IT'S THE SAUCE!

The most important event mentioned thus far in the history of Ralph's first Goody Goody, other than the actual opening of it, is that while in Hannibal, Amanda Stephens had picked up a recipe for a unique sauce from a barbeque stand in nearby Quincy, Ill. 

That sauce (and Amanda's pies) would be the common thread for ALL the Goody Goodys EVERYWHERE, to this day. 

Later, the Stephenses would call it their "COME BACK SAUCE" because it kept customers coming back for more.

Harry E. Grigsby was born in Miltonvale, Cloud Co, Kansas in 1890, the third child of four of Charles A. and Mary Grigsby, natives of Iowa and Indiana. Harry was 10 years old in 1900, so he was about the same age as Ralph Stephens, who was 2 years younger. At this time, Harry's father was a bowling alley operator.

1900 Census, Clay Center, Kansas

HARRY STARTS OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT IN OK CITY
Oklahoma had just achieved statehood in 1907 when  Harry came to Oklahoma city to seek his fortune that same year.   Or maybe for another reason. 
 

*BELOW:  The article is misleading, incomplete at best.  Apparently, the marriage had already taken place and may be why there seems to have been no "statutory charge" pursued.  The bride's name on their marriage license is Nellie Motz and she married Harry on Dec. 11, 1908, the day before the article was published.  Nellie's guardian Jennie Keith gave the underage permission, and Harry's father, C. A. Grigsby, gave permission for Harry.  Harry & Nellie were 17 (or 18) & 16, respectively.  Harry's birth year bounces around at 1890 or 1891 on various records.

On Jan. 17, 1909, their son Harry Orval Grigsby was born in Oklahoma City.

MEANWHILE, "BACK AT THE RANCH"
1910 Census of Harry E. Grigsby, 615 S. Walker, Oklahoma City

By 1910, the whole Grigsby family had moved to Oklahoma City from Kansas, except Thurza, Harry's oldest sister.  She had married a Mr. Wilkins by this time.  This census shows Harry's father had become an ice cream peddler.  His sons, William and Harry, also sold ice cream on the streets,  and his daughter Docia, worked as a cook in a cone factory.  Here 20 yr. old Harry was listed as single.

HARRY GRIGSBY REMARRIES

Harry married Jennie Humphreys on Mar. 29, 1913 in Oklahoma City. They were both 22 at the time.  This time no parental consent was needed.

Harry had been in the food service business since around 1913 (longer, if you count his job selling ice cream with his father), setting up his short-order stands in various places.  In 1915, this particular lunch stand, was to be his third, and it was to be located in the OK City "California Market House," so named because it was on California Avenue, right in the middle of town on the first block west of Broadway.  The Market House was like we would consider a flea market with various booths to rent; a farmer's market.

Put your mouse pointer on the ad to unscramble it

Looks like Harry's menu had become somewhat famous by this time.

In 1915, Ralph Stephens was either still in KC working as a presser in a dye shop, or working at his father's Western Hotel in OK City, or somewhere in between.