The Cooper-Keplinger House

In 1910, J.M. Bloodworth sold three adjacent lots in Olney, and Ralph Shuffler and his wife Carrie must have built a house on the south end of these lots. Mr. Shuffler was an early editor of the Olney Enterprise. A.A. Cooper bought the lot, left and evidently built the house as a rent house in the early 1920s because he gave a note on the property to J.C. Mytinger for $ 3,800. Mr. Mytinger was a builder of many homes in Olney, and the note continued to exist into 1938, as it was held by the City National Bank of Wichita Falls.

In 1941, Cooper—from whom Lake Cooper received its name—and his wife Sarah, sold the house to Rufus Stinnett (1909-1979) Mac and Linnie (Ribble) McCasland (1914-2009) for $ 2,350, which shows how the Depression affected home prices. Mac was school board president for several years, an oil operator, a Lion, and served as an election judge. He and Linnie married in 1939. The McCasland children were Ann and Nickey.

In 1947, the McCaslands sold the house to Doyle (1911-1992) and Helen (O’Neal) (1909-2004) Evans. Mr. Evans’ parents were Erb (1874-1947) and Lula (Bobbitt) (1882-1958) Evans, who came to Olney in 1909 with their son Clester (1903-1993). Evans, Sr., and the two sons engaged in the grocery business for many years with a downtown location on Main Street. The children of Doyle and Helen were Malta (Akins) and Linda (Seeding).

Clester married Winnie Dunagan (1904-2002), the daughter of J.P. Dunagan, and they had two children—Corky and Neva, who married Don McClatchy, the son of Wright McClatchy who was the brother-in-law of E.W. Hunt, which is how Ernest Hunt and Donald were first cousins and grads of OHS in 1943 and later rivals in the Olney financial community.

In 1989, Doyle and Helen sold the house to their son-in-law Henry Seeding, and in 1990, Henry sold the property to Patricia Ann Fitche, the widow of Franklin Fichte (1934-1989), the son of Bennie (1912-2006) and Ouida (1913-1974) (Hilton) Fichte. Patricia Ann (Pat) (Wolf) was the daughter of W.D. Wolf who was the son of D.L. Wolf and Esther Hutton whose family came from Canada seeking a dry climate as a cure for tuberculosis. The family settled in Archer County, coming with Dr. Prideaux in 1876, and with Esther—the tutor for the Prideaux children. Pat’s first marriage was to Wayne Wainscott, and two of their children were Bobby (Carol) and Susan (Dennis Jeske). Pat’s other husbands were Nubbin Bankhead and Charles Calvin, Sr., an adopted son of Olin and Edith Calvin.

In 2005, Pat Calvin sold the house to John T. Carter and his wife Angela. The Carter’s divorced in 2014, left the house to Angela. In 2019, Angela sold the house to Danny and Pamela Keplinger. Danny has since died, and Pamela resides in the house and works at the prison in Jacksboro.

If you have any corrections or additional information to add to this article, contact Clifton Key at 940-564-2979