Seminole Indian Territory Installment IX

Seminole County, Oklahoma, 1924. Prohibition agents attack a moonshine still, blasting away at the moonshiners. Prohibition agent, Wiley Lynn [Murderer of Bill Tilghman], arrests the main moonshiner, saying that he is in violation of the Volstead Act. Wiley then kicks the moonshiner in the face.

The agents take the moonshiner to a building used by the oil well drillers. Wiley asks the moon shiner who he makes his deliveries to? The deputy agent tells the moonshiner that he better tell the man who he delivers to. The moonshiner says that Mr. Lynn already knows who he delivers to. Wiley pulls out his gun and shoots the deputy agent. The moonshiner then pushes the deputy agent down an oil well opening. Wiley starts laughing and the moonshiner joins in on the laughing. Then, suddenly, Wiley got very menacing saying that he did warn the moonshiner. He then tells the law breaker that he better get out of Seminole County and never come back. The moonshiner agrees to that and starts walking out of the building. Wiley calls out to the man, who turns around, and Wiley shot the fellow in the chest. He then throws the body into the same oil well opening. Wiley now bloodies his forehead by banging it against a pipe.

The Guthrie Daily Leader, July 24, 1896
George King, a Negro from the Seminole nation, was brought here last night by Deputy Marshal Ryan and lodged in the federal jail. He is charged with having committed a rape on a white girl in that country. He will be taken to Fort Smith. Under the laws of the Indian Territory the punishment for rape is death by hanging.

Robert Reed, Deputy U S Marshal
U. S. Marshals
Robert Reed and Sore Lip Willie had been appointed Deputy U S Marshals for the limited duty of apprehending a black man named Coffey Barnes for stealing horses. The lawmen located Barnes in the Seminole Nation and when Barnes resisted arrest and he was killed in the shootout. Later, on Sunday, October 27, 1889, the lawmen were sitting on their horses talking to John Halsey at a gate near his home. As the three were talking, five men were observed riding toward the house. As the five men neared the gate, they drew their pistols and opened fire on Reed and Willie, shooting them out of their saddles. The lawmen were dead when they hit the ground. The five men then rode away without saying a word. Halsey recognized the men as Cudge Barnett, Prince Hawkins, Ross Ryley, D. Brown and a man he knew only as Lane. No record can be found indicating if the five men were ever arrested for the murder of the deputies.

Cherokee Bill aka Cherokee Kid
At eighteen, while attending a dance at Fort Gibson, Texas, he shot Jake Lewis twice for beating up Crawford’s little brother. He then headed for the Creek and Seminole Nations (now Oklahoma) where he met Jim and Bill Cook, a couple of outlaws.
In the summer of 1894, the Cook’s and Crawford got the owner of a restaurant to go and collect some money due each of them as a payment share for some Indian land called the Cherokee Strip. The government had bought the land. She did collect the money for all three, and on her return was followed by a sheriff’s posse trying to catch up with the Cooks. There was a gunfight at one point, one killed and one wounded. The owner of the restaurant was questioned about the gunfight and was asked if Crawford was amongst the group. She replied no but that it was the Cherokee Kid. This, apparently, was where he gained his nickname.
The famous Cook gang made itself known across the Cherokee and Seminole Nations (in now Oklahoma) in July 1894 with robberies and murder.

Famous Lawmen and Outlaws in Seminole County
The early 1920's also saw the discovery of oil in Oklahoma, and "boom towns" began to spring up around the state. These oil towns became the scene of much violence. One such town was Cromwell in Seminole County. Oil had been discovered in October of 1923 and by 1924, Cromwell had 10 unsolved murders. Governor M. E. Trapp called upon former deputy United States marshal Bill Tilghman, now retired, to take on the job of town marshal and clean up the boom town. But in November 1924, the famous lawman died at the hands of a drunken federal prohibition agent [Wiley Lynn]. His murderer was tried, but found not guilty, and lived to slay another lawman a few years later. Tilghman's body was taken to the rotunda at the state capitol, where thousands of Oklahoman citizens paid their respects to one of the "Three Guardsmen" who had fought the bad men in the territorial days.
In 1907 Seminole County was created when Indian and Oklahoma territories were joined to form the state of Oklahoma. At 1907 statehood the county's population stood at 14,687, rising to 19,964 in 1920. In 1908 residents voted to designate Wewoka, the largest town in the county at that time, as the county seat. The Seminole National Capitol Building, built by the Seminole after the Civil War, served as the courthouse until a new structure was constructed in 1927. The Seminole County Courthouse is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR 84003429). County Courthouse, 1904.

One of the most famous occurrences in the county was the Green Corn Rebellion. In August 1917 a group of radicals associated with the Working Class Union formed groups in Seminole and surrounding counties to oppose and evade the World War I draft by destroying utilities, confronting law authorities, and, ultimately, marching to Washington, D.C. Approximately 450 were arrested. The event seemed to mark the end of Oklahoma's flirtations with socialism.

In 1832 Washington Irving was among the early explorers of the area that was first settled by the Creek and Seminole in the 1830s. In 1856 the Seminole moved east of the county area to a separate reservation. As a result of the Reconstruction Treaties of 1866 and ensuing agreements over the following two decades, the Seminole were assigned lands that comprise present Seminole County. Confusion over boundaries caused the Seminole to purchase land from the federal government and the Creek Nation, which had been resettled to the east. The Seminole established their capital at Wewoka.

Twenty-five archaeological sites represent Seminole County's prehistory. One site dates to the Paleo period (prior to 6000 B.C.), thirteen to the Archaic period (6000 B.C. to A.D. 1), four to the Woodland period (A.D. 1 to 1000), and seven to the Plains Village period (A.D. 1000 to 1500). Between 1971 and 1972 archaeologists found stone dart points and other evidence indicating occupation of people from the late Archaic period at the Raulston-Rogers (SM-20) Site (listed in the National Register of Historic Places, NR 78002262).

More Seminole Memorabilia--Connection to In-Laws and Outlaws. It should be noted that I have posted several tidbits about Jake Sims, Seminole Lawman of yesteryear. Both my grandfather and father told me many stories about Jake and a host of other Lawmen of this county, as well as the lore of many outlaws connected with Seminole--there are MANY! There was mention of Jake in one of my previous posts, referencing 85 Years Ago, The Seminole Producer, June 17, 1931, see below. In some of my previous posts, grandson of Jake Sims, Charles Sims, inquired whether Boley, OK was still extant. I am glad to report that it is. Boley has often been referred to as an original Oklahoma "Negro" town, just across the border of Seminole County, lying in Okfuskee County. Well...that ain't all there is to that story. It really should be known as one of the original Oklahoma Freedman Counties; that just so happens it is what it is. Strangely, the day following an exchange between Charles and I, what would appear but a piece in The Seminole Producer about Boley and outlaw, George Birdwell, written by his G-G-Granddaughter, Jaime Birdwell-Branson, in This Land Press. It is a fascinating article; it is almost a full page in the Producer so I will not post in its entirety. Further, I am not sure how many of you are familiar with This Land Press, but if you have any Okie in you, I heartily recommend it. I will post a link to it, below. Boley was one of 50 "all-black" towns in Oklahoma, settled by former slaves of Native Americans, following the Civil War. These are/ were known as Freedmen, not "all black", by any stretch. Boley was incorporated in 1905, built on land given to Abigail Barnett, daughter of a Creek Freedman. Boley was hailed by the famed Booker T. Washington as, "the most enterprising, and in many ways the most interesting of the Negro towns in the U.S."

To be continued…