From History of the Arkansas Press, by Frederick William Allsop, 1922
Colonel Jim Tom Story was one of the veterans of the newspaper business in Arkansas. While serving as a printer on the New Orleans Picayune, he enlisted in the Civil War, and became the Colonel of a Louisiana regiment. He was the publisher of the Meteor for several years. He had also been connected with several other newspapers in Arkansas. He established the first newspaper at Mineral Wells, Texas, and at the time of his death he was the owner of the Bokchito, Okla., News. He moved to Oklahoma from Arkansas in 1920, and was then appointed Superintendent of the Confederate Home at Ardmore. He died at Mineral Wells, December 16, 1920, aged 80 years.
The Bokchito News November 20, 1919 Letter from the Editor, Mineral Wells, Tex. Nov. 13th, 1919- Have been here over a week and under the care of one of the best physicians in the country, Dr. J. N. Pyle, ho also owns and operates the Saint Paul Sanitarium, one of the best equipped and operated institutions of the kind to be found anywhere. I am safely recovering from an affliction caused by an “unlucky hit” over in Virginia while serving under Stonewall Jackson. He did not perform an operation, believing he could save me from much suffering and I am now satisfied he will accomplish his desire. Of course, my improvement is slow, but certainly it is sure. The Doctor, much of the time accompanied by his most accomplished wife (in his business office), is one of the cleverest fellows one could meet, is untiring in his efforts attending to the many who gather regularly every day for treatment of various diseases. And his success is heralded by the hundreds treated by him in his business office and at his sanitarium. I am certainly grateful to him for th relief I have received by his treatment. The city is a wonderful health resort- a place that it seems all or any kind of ailment can be cured. The city itself is kept clean, and its streets are almost perfectly sanitary- as is the residence and urines portions of the town. There is a world of new buildings going on, both residence and business. Hotels and lodging houses are crowed to the utmost. A new million dollar hotel has just begun to build. It is near the big Crazy hotel. The Daily Index, the only paper there, an evening edition, is a fine paper. It takes the dispatches and is well edited and full of city news. C. W. Wilson is editor and the plant is owned by the Index Printing Co. the stockholders being of the best men of Mineral Wells. The editor is a member of the Legislature and is said to be a live wire. I believe it to be so, for I know him to be made up of pep and that of the hot kind. The Index is eagerly sought by the people every evening. My son, Jim Tom Jr. and his loveable wife are looking after me in good style in the home apartment of his three-story brick opposite his store, just across the street on the corner of the thriftiest thoroughfare a few doors of the U.S. postoffice building. I am glad to say that his business is good- just fine- and keeps himself, wife and the clerks on the jump from early in the morning until 11 at night. Of course I am proud of one so popular and well liked by everyone. He and his estimable wife are grand people that’s all. He just yesterday bought the vacant lot, 25 feet front, adjoin his store, paying the neat sum of $12,000 for it. He is already preparing to erect a large 3-story modern brick building, the house to cost him about $40,000 but it will be up-to-date in Mineral Wells and that means something. This city is not worrying about coal or wood. It has unlimited supply of natural gas. I have not seen a load of wood or a chunk of coal since I arrived here. The blizzard hit hard, but all have plenty of gas. The celebration of Armistice Day, Tuesday, in this city, I daresay, was the most elaborate of any city of 10,000. An estimate placed the number of autos at 2,000. Whistles blew, bells rang, cannons boomed, and airplanes flew over town for an hour. The precession was grand to look at. Rich and poor, and all patriots touched shoulders and celebrated together. I expect to join the old News when my aliment is safely cured. Love to everybody in Bokchito. Jim Tom Story
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