ARTS • events

Rose hill Cemetery Tour 2006

Edgar L. and Pearl Nellie DeHart

Local pioneer and inventor, Edgar (Ed) DeHart, traveled with his parents and a sister from Tennessee to Chickasha by covered wagon in 1900. They settled north of town where they farmed and trucked and later moved to the Alexarea. The family eventually grew to nine boys and two girls. In 1916, Ed served in World War I and when he returned two years later, he worked for Bock Plumbing, Heating and Sheet Metal. He then managed Gilky Hardware, a sheet metal shop. He and Pearl Nellie Bell were married in 1920, and they formed the DeHart Metal Products Manufacturing Corporation. They manufactured a variety of products, including apparatus and piping for the cotton gin, cotton oil compress processing equipment, ventilators, exhaust systems, and other items.  By 1927, Ed had completed courses in Mechanical Engineering. He designed and manufactured one of the first forced air heating furnaces and patented the 'force flow air' system.  He also held patents on ventilating skylights, fireproof dust collectors and Gins and Processing, automatic doughnut machines, plus other products. During World War II, Ed worked for the Army Corp of Engineers.  Elmer, Ed and Pearl's son, received a degree from OSU in Thermodynamics in 1948 and then joined his parents in the DeHart Air Conditioning and Electronics Company in Chickasha.

(photographers: Joanna Owen-Clouston and Marcie Price)

Back to main cemetery tour page