Ada Curnutt – Deputy Marshal

Daughter of a Methodist minister, Ada Curnutt moved to the Oklahoma Territory with her sister and brother-in-law shortly after it opened for settlers. She soon found work as Clerk of the District Court in Norman and as a Deputy Marshal to U.S. Marshal William Grimes. The slim 20-year old, however, was not a “hard” woman as evidenced by her avowed favorite hobby of painting china.

But when duty called, Ada was ready to respond. Shortly before Christmas in 1893, she received a telegram from Grimes, instructing her to send a deputy to Oklahoma City to bring in two notorious outlaws named Reagan and Dolezal. All the other deputies already had warrants and were out scouting for suspects. Not one to shirk her duty, Ada boarded the train for Oklahoma City and upon her arrival asked around for information on her quarry. It didn’t take her long to find them at a gambling house and saloon. She then asked a man on the street to go in and tell them that a lady needed to see them outside.

When the two emerged, Ada read the warrants to them and placed them under arrest. Heavily armed, they scoffed at the idea that this unarmed young woman could actually arrest them. Calmly, she pointed to the crowd gathered around and announced that she was prepared to deputize every man in the crowd to aide her in doing just that. She handcuffed them without incident and escort them to the train station, where she telegraphed the marshal’s office in Guthrie that she was bringing them in.

This was not Ada’s first arrest. Earlier that year she had arrested 19 men one night at the Black and Roger saloon in Oklahoma City for perjury in land contests.

Betsy Ross - Businesswoman

Today is Betsy Ross’s 258th birthday. Generations of American children knew Betsy as the maker, and perhaps designer, of the first flag of the United States of America. Many historians now, however, question Betsy’s participation in this event.

Regardless of whether or not she made the first flag, Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole had plenty of pluck. As a young woman, Betsy was apprenticed to an upholsterer, where she met another young apprentice named John Ross. Betsy, a Quaker, and Ross, son of an Episcopal assistant rector, eloped to New Jersey in 1773, an act which would cut her off from her family and her religion as she was “read out” of the Quaker congregation for marrying outside the faith.

Shortly after their marriage, they opened their own upholstery shop in Philadelphia. As the colonies moved ever closer toward war with England, John Ross joined the militia and was seriously wounded in an explosion while guarding an ammunition cache. He died soon afterward.

Betsy carried on the upholstery business, and it was not long after John’s death that, according to the story she told her grandchildren, none other than George Washington approached her about producing a flag for the soon-to-be nation. As upholsterers of that day also designed and made flags, this is not out of the question .

Betsy married twice more, outliving both husbands and continuing in an active role in the upholstery business until she was 75 years old. Her business thrived, and at one time she had as many as 50 women working for her. Through the years, she brought many of her family members into the business, providing employment and skills which allowed daughters and grandchildren to support themselves.