Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves

13. Northern District, Indian Territory

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 [First Page] [209], (1) Lines: 0 to 15 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [209], (1) 13. Northern District, Indian Territory B y 1897 the Northern Federal District for the Indian Territory, with headquarters at Muskogee, now comprised the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Nations and the Quapaw Agency. Courts met in Muskogee in the Creek Nation, Vinita and Tahlequah in the Cherokee Nation, and Miami in the Quapaw country. Muskogee was a division headquarters for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (mk&t) Railroad , where thousands of cattle were shipped to markets. With the advantage of being able to fatten trail-weary herds of Texas cattle before shipment to slaughterhouses, Muskogee was definitely cowboy country. From the time when it was the end of the rail for “the Katy,” as the mk&t was called back in the 1870s, Muskogee had been a rowdy and wild town. It remained a lively city up until statehood in 1907. Muskogee wasn’t incorporated until 1898; before then, the town proper was policed by U.S. Indian Police who also had deputy U.S. marshal commissions. The business leaders appointed a city marshal from the Indian police. After 1898, Muskogee had a city police force, but once again, much of the police work fell to the deputy U.S. marshals of the Northern Federal District. On September 21, 1897, President William McKinley appointed Dr. Leo E. Bennett as U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Indian Territory. Born in Kansas in November 1857, he was the son of Dr. James E. and Martha A. Bennett. The family moved to Fort Smith, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 [210], (2) Lines: 15 ——— 8.42pt ——— Normal PgEnds: [210], (2) Arkansas, where Leo attended public school. Later he attended the prestigious Rugby Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor prior to attending medical school at the University of Tennessee. In 1883, after medical school, Bennett moved to Eufaula, Creek Nation, Indian Territory, to practice medicine. Besides his main occupation, Bennett started a newspaper in Eufaula, entitled the Indian Journal, in 1887. That same year, Bennett operated a store north of Muskogee on the mk&t Railroad. He made frequent trips to Washington dc and successfully obtained a post office at the small but growing railroad switchyard north of Gibson Station. This post office became known as the town of Wagoner. In 1888 Dr. Bennett sold his interest in the Eufaula Indian Journal and moved to Muskogee. He married a Creek Indian citizen named Lonie Stidham, the daughter of G. W. Stidham, and started a prosperous newspaper, the Muskogee Phoenix. On September 21, 1889, Bennett was appointed Indian agent for the Five Civilized Tribes, headquartered at Muskogee. Bennett was a Republican and became one of the founders of the party in Indian Territory. At the time of his appointment as U.S. marshal, Bennett increased the number of deputy U.S. marshals that served the Northern District to twentyfour . Some of the notable veteran deputies retained and placed by Bennett included J. F. “Bud” Ledbetter, Paden Tolbert, David Adams, Grant Johnson, and Bass Reeves. The presiding U.S. judge for the Northern District was John Robert Thomas.1 On September 30, 1897, two days after Bass Reeves arrested a murderer , a black man named George Cully, on the streets of Muskogee, the Muskogee Phoenix carried the following story: Murdered and Robbed Monday last Dick Carr, who had made a crop on the Scott Gentry farm at Choska, brought a load of cotton to town, sold it, got the money and started for home. He reached the Arkansas river after nightfall. The ferrymen, who were on the opposite side, heard the wagon and began pulling across. While crossing a gun-shot was heard. Having crossed, they waited for some time for the wagon to approach, and finally, at the suggestion of one that some accident had probably been met with, they 210 Northern District, Indian Territory 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12...