Seminole Indian Territory for Producer Installment VI

Here is a piece of Seminole history. I have talked about it numerous times. The tribes in Indian Territory opted to fight for Jeff Davis, President of the Confederacy, during the Civil War. It cost them dearly and the final result was the opening of Oklahoma Territory to a series of 9 Land Runs, which ultimately became the 46th State. What you will read below is a historical rarity. Thomas Wilson, Seminole Tribe, was actually in possession of a rare discharge, signed by General Robert E. "Marse" Lee on May 1, 1865, 21 days following the surrender at Appomattox. The discharge certificate is most likely still in the state museum. As a footnote, the Articles of Surrender had a proviso that unless and until Stand Watie, Cherokee, officer of the Confederacy, stand down in Indian Territory, these Articles do not become effective. In fact, he did not. That is why you often hear that it never ended.

It is not surprising that agrarian radicalism emerged in Seminole County in the early twentieth century. The region was a relatively infertile agricultural area, made up predominately of tenant farmers who raised cotton, corn, peanuts, oats, and, hay. However, that changed in the early 1920s after O. D. Strother began searching for oil in the county in the late 1910s. The first great discovery well, the Betsy Foster Number One, was drilled near Wewoka in 1923. In rapid succession the Cromwell pool was developed in 1924, and the Fixico Number One brought in a gusher in the summer of 1926 in Seminole. The oil rush was on. At the height of its production the Seminole (city) Field accounted for 2.6 percent of the world's oil production. The county population increased from 23,808 in 1920 to 79,621 in 1930. The rapid influx of men, women, and machinery taxed the local infrastructure and produced colorful tales. Town histories relate stories of streets so muddy that cars sank up to their fenders. Hastily erected shacks, Bishop's Alley (a red-light district), and railroad activity in the city of Seminole were second only to Chicago. Cromwell, known as the "wickedest town in the United States," brought legendary William "Bill" Tilghman out of retirement to patrol its streets.

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, then 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 badmen in the territorial days.
http://www.truewestmagazine.com/the-killing-of-bill-tilghm…/

Bill Tilghman

Tilghman heard that Bill Doolin, a member of the Wild Bunch, was hanging around the Eureka Hot Springs over in Arkansas. So, he dressed as a musician, complete with a violin case, and walked past all the customers around the hot springs resort. He walked up to the main room where the men were getting massages and he looked at all the men's faces until he found Doolin. He pulled out a shotgun from the violin case and said to Doolin: "You know my name, Doolin." Doolin started reaching for his pistol, but Tilghman came closer to the outlaw, and said: "Don't make me kill you, Bill."
Tilghman and his wife later go to the premier of Bill's movie. The capture of Bill Doolin was put in Tilghman's movie. Also in the movie was Bill's involvement with the capture of two young ladies with the Wild Bunch gang, Cattle Annie and Little Britches. Tilghman is called out of the movie to speak with a man, a store owner named John Sirmans from Cromwell, Oklahoma. John represents the Citizen's Committee for Law and Order. He says things are out of control in Cromwell, in Seminole County, and they want Bill Tilghman as their first chief of police, because everybody knows the name of Bill Tilghman and his presence will show the outlaws that they mean business in Cromwell to stop the crime wave.

1924 -- at the age of seventy, Tilghman becomes the marshal of Cromwell in Seminole County, Oklahoma. He is warned that the gangsters of the town could kill him while he is on the job. On November 12, he dies from two shots fired by Wiley Lynn, a corrupt Prohibition agent. One month after Tilghman's murder, the town of Cromwell is torched, with every brothel, bar, flophouse, and pool hall being burned to the ground.
The Legendary Jake Sims
In our research we learned the bootlegger business in Seminole, Oklahoma, was a taxi company, setting within a half block and direct view of the front window of the Seminole Police Department and the Chief of Police's office window. The view out both windows provided a clear view to see every vehicle driving in and out for a liquor purchase, every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the boom days of the 1920's until the state was went wet in 1959.
What is significant about the Seminole situation is the Chief of Police was none other than, Jake Sims, one of Oklahoma's most respected and storied lawman. Jake Sims, was the Seminole Chief during the oil boom years, moving on to serve stints as the head of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's Division of Criminal Investigation, the director of OSBI, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and finally back as the Seminole Chief of Police until approximately* the time state went wet.
To review our point, bribery and kickback, cover-up and protection, fraud and corruption, have long been accepted as the normal.
*Note:
Jake Sims' dates of service. No records could be found showing Jake Sims' last date of service. However, we did find reference to his active presence at the Seminole Police station, as late as 1955, and he was still relatively young.
Full story here:

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Jake Sims a Personal Anecdote

By Charles Sims

This is a story which some might think I probably should not tell but since it happened in a time and place where standards and morals were much different from today and all the participant but me are long dead, I think no harm can come from the tale.

My grandfather on my father’s side was the notorious Oklahoma lawman Jake Sims. Much of what I am going to relate in this post is based on family stores I overheard as a child growing up in Seminole and assorted rumors that I have picked up during my lifetime. This story that involves me as a small child is related to the best of my memory.
Jake started his life in law enforcement as an FBI agent. How that came to be is really unknown but is very unusual because he appeared to be at least half Indian. In those days, it would have been very unusual for some one of Indian blood to admitted into the FBI. Although at the time the FBI was far from the professional law enforcement agency that it would later become. Jake was recruited to be the Chief of Police in Seminole, OK to bring some law and order to the boom town. The time period of some of these events is rather obscure. Jake Sims became the Chief of Seminole police and served in that capacity during the great Seminole oil boom days of the 1920’s, 30’s and possibly the early 40”s. He later became the head of the Oklahoma State Crime Bureau.
Jake Sims stands out as an Oklahoma lawman for several reasons. He was very effective in catching bad guys. He was basically honest although the standard of honesty for cops in that time and place was much different than today’s standard. Most lawmen practiced some form of “honest graft”. Cops of that time were so poorly paid that they needed some way to supplement their meager earnings. That made taking a little money from the purveyors of “victimless crimes” such as bootlegging, gambling and prostitution an excepted practice. Jake Sims always lived on the edge of poverty and died penniless so we can assume that he kept his “honest graft” to the minimum he needed to survive.
To be continued in Part VII