From deep within the REC archives
Full disclosure: I never knew Vern Willhite and I stumbled onto his story quite by accident. I’m glad I did. In a world chock full of the truly ordinary, I love hearing stories about exceptional people, especially this close to home. It is refreshing to learn how exceptional people think and what makes them tick. By even the loftiest standards, Mr. Willhite, as I would discover, was distinctly exceptional.
By Clint Branham Communica ons Specialist
T
orren al rains back in late-December 2015 invaded the basement here at Northeast Oklahoma Electric Coopera ve headquarters. Encroaching moisture forced employees to “rescue” certain stored items from poten al water damage. While taking inventory, I came across a box of yellowed newspaper clippings and old black and white photos that hadn’t seen the light of day in decades.
I viewed many interes ng pictures while sor ng through these vintage items one morning. One set of pictures in the box, in par cular, caught my eye. These images captured an assortment of wooden tool handles and baseball bats. A makeshi sign in one of the photos credited the “Beaver Handle Company” of Spavinaw, Oklahoma, as the manufacturer of these items. Having never heard of the business, I was intrigued and sought to educate myself on the details.
I ventured online and found one lead a er typing in a combina on of diff erent search
terms. It was an obituary for a gentleman named Kenneth L. “Vern” Willhite. It read: “Kenneth L. Willhite, age 89, of Spavinaw, Oklahoma, passed from this life February 22, 2012. Services will be held Saturday 10 a.m. at the Topsy Assembly Church of God, Jay, Oklahoma. Interment, Mose Ridge Cemetery, Jay, Oklahoma. Services under the direc on of Grand Lake Funeral Home of Jay, Oklahoma.”
The second paragraph of the obituary contained my breakthrough bit of informa on, explaining how Mr. Willhite had been self- employed and had manufactured all kinds of tool handles. His company, as you may have surmised, was none other than the Beaver Handle Company.
The Willhite property was served by REA electric lines, which explains why we had the pictures. The coopera ve had endeavored to help Willhite promote his business, although a er speaking to a few locals, I learned that the industrious Willhite likely needed no assistance in making his business a success.
I also discovered that it was not uncommon to see tool handles available from vendors at various sales. Peddlers would buy in bulk from Willhite and then resell to the public at a mark-up. Willhite once told his son-in-law that he made a pre y good living wholesaling one par cular hammer handle to peddlers for a penny apiece.
Vern and Ida celebrated 50 years of marriage.
6 - NE Connection
In fact, so prolifi c was Willhite’s tool handle opera on that if your father or grandfather had a shed full of tools at that me, he probably owned more than one Beaver Handle Company product. And local baseball teams throughout the region—from li le leaguers to American Legion-sponsored
squads – were probably swinging bats made right here in northeast Oklahoma.
Our story actually begins with Willhite’s birth on June 24, 1922. He was the second of fi ve sons born to George Edward “Pappy” and Wilsie Fay (Beaver) Willhite. The family made its home at Elk Ranch, Carroll County, Arkansas. They also owned a sawmill and a tool handle company that u lized equipment designed and built by Pappy himself.
The family business started in 1935. It was a success and a fi xture in the local community, a rac ng mber suppliers from across the region. When the precious hickory and ash mber they needed to fuel the business became increasingly scarce, the family pulled up roots and relocated to northeast Oklahoma, the source of its best mber supply.
Vern graduated from Eureka Springs High School and joined the Army. He met Ida Mae Easley and they married April 12, 1942, in Eureka Springs. Vern would serve in World War II and return home about the me the family was heading for Oklahoma.
The en re Willhite clan se led in the small Delaware County community of “Topsy.” Once in Oklahoma, Pappy stepped aside to let the boys run the sawmill and the tool handle opera on, which let him focus a en on on his general store.
Before we con nue, allow me to add that the town of Beaver, Arkansas, as well as the handle company itself, were namesakes of Wilsie’s notable family. Many may be interested to note that Wilsie’s sisters, Cleo and Zelma, neither of whom married,
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