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For years a piece of Henryetta history has been sitting in the basement of a former Oklahoma governor’s home in Ponca City.
Now it is back in Henryetta showcasing the contribution by one local man toward railroad history.
In 1918, Virgel Benton Hodges came up with an idea for a tool to pull spikes from railroad ties without bending them. Prior to his invention,the spikes could easily be bent that would render them unfit for reuse without time-consuming straightening or reforming.
Hodges didn’t stop at that. He added a feature to the tool that made it also useable as a mattock for general use.
His March 23, 1918 application to the United States Patent office included a lengthy description of how it was to be built and used and even had a wooden mockup.
Apparently the patent office decided it would be worthy and his patent, number 1,289,761 dated Dec. 31, 1918 was granted.
At that time, the patent guaranteed that his invention could only be marketed by him for a 20-year period.
Somehow the original patent certificate as well as the product description and even the wood mockup found it’s way to the original home of Oklahoma Gov. E.W. Maryland in Ponca City.
A lot of care had been taken for the items now framed in a glass-protected shadow box.
Recently Jayne Detten who works at the Marland Mansion and Marland Grand Home in downtown Ponca City ran across the framed items and reached out to Roy Madden a the Henryetta chamber of commerce about returning the historic piece.
He agreed and Monday, the carefully-wrapped display was dropped off by UPS.
Madden showed the display to First Family Federal Credit Union CEO David Dykes to said he would display it at their corporate office along with other historical items.
Dykes also requested anyone with information about the inventor, Virgel Benton Hodges, to help add to the history of the invention.
About E.W. Marland:
He was an oil tycoon in both Oklahoma and Pennsylvania and became the tenth Oklahoma governor in 1934.
Living in Ponca City, he had a mansion built on Grand Avenue in Ponca City and later another Mansion that is now a museum and is a national historic landmark.

Read more about E.W. Marland HERE.

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