I remember traveling from Erick, Oklahoma to Mangum, Oklahoma with my parents back in the 60’s. We would go through Delhi, a little community off Highway 283 south of Sayre. On those frequent trips there were two locations that caught my attention. One was the old town site of Brinkman just West and South of Willow. It was business building on a main street, but none of them was occupied. In fact nothing else was there, no homes, no churches, nothing. The other thing that caught my eye was an old house that set East of the Highway between the Delhi cutoff and where Highway 283 connected with Highway 34. It sat off the road on the East side in the middle of a field. It looked massive and was of rock construction.
Fast forward to the late 1970’s, grown and on my own, I would often pass that way to my first pastorate. We lived in Oklahoma City and would drive out on the weekends. The old house was still there, maybe not quite as massive as I had remembered from years past. On one of the trips I stopped and walked the distance to the old house. It was as impressive up close as it was in the distance. Large stones formed the walls. There was not much left of the doors and windows as the stress of weather and time had taken their toil. Many of the shingles on the roof were gone which left plenty of holes for the water and weather to enter. It was a story and a half, the stairs was no longer safe to climb. I took several pictures that day one being pictured here.
It has been years since I went that way and out of curiosity, I did a Google Map Search but could not find the house. I imagine like the remains of Brinkman it had been torn down. The sands of time have a way of slowly removing the majestic, but temporal things that we build. It is only our relationship with Jesus that will stand the test of time. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”