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Early Days
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Fred McIntyre and Charles DeLong both were born in the East and found their way to the Midwest as relatively young men. Fred was 19 when he came to South McAlester in 1890 and Charles was 27 when he moved to Hot Springs in 1898 after being an instructor at the Bradley Institute. Charles was a watchmaker in Hot Springs, Arkansas and eventually found his way to South McAlester, Indian Territory where he joined forces with Fred in Fred's jewelry business and began developing designs for the McIntyre Watch. How Fred came to own his fine store in South McAlester is not known. His family was well off, but not wealthy. However, Fred was a great promoter and likely was able to gather local resources to start up the business. The following pages show some of the environment and artifacts from this early period. |