We hope to see you at the grand re-opening of the TB Ferguson Museum from 10 a.m. 3 p.m. this Saturday, May 27. Hotdogs will be served at 11, so come on over from the airport breakfast, then take a tour.
One of the three organs in the Ferguson Home Museum is reported to have been used to compose Oklahoma’s original state song 'Oklahoma (A Toast).' The song was written in 1903 by a woman in Kingfisher, Harriet Parker Camden, who is credited as the creator of the lyrics and music, with arrangement by J.W. Scroggs, according to the copyrighted sheet music of 1929 by Chenoweth and Green, music publishers of Enid.
The song was adopted by the Oklahoma legislature in 1935 as the official state song and was sung in classrooms across the state. “Oklahoma (A Toast)” was replaced by the song, 'Oklahoma!,' with words by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Richard Rodgers by the Oklahoma Legislature as the official state song of Oklahoma in 1953. An interesting account of how George Nigh did this is https://www.okhistory.o rg/learn/musical4 The words of the original state song are: “ I give you a land of sun and flow’eres, And summer a whole year long; I give you a land where the golden hours Roll by to the Mockingbird’s song; Where the cotton blooms ‘neath the southern sun Where the vintage hangs thick on the vine; A land whose story has just begun, This wonderful land of mine.
Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Fairest daughter of the West, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, “Tis the land I love the best. We have often sung her praises, But we have not told the half, so I give you Oklahoma, “Tis a toast we all can quaf”.
This is just one of the interesting artifacts housed in the Ferguson Home Museum.
Information adapted from The Oklahoman article by Ann DeFrange published Oct. 5, 2006.