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IndexCoalgate Courier
September 28, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Marshal Bennett and guards will take the prisoners who are to be tried at Wewoka next week, down there in the prison car. As there is no jail at Wewoka, the prisoners will be kept in the car and fed therein. They will be compelled to sleep and dine in the same car. It is an inconvenient arrangement, but it is the best that can be made under the circumstances. The car will be hitched to the noon flyer tomorrow and taken to South McAlester. From there it will be taken to Wewoka by the Choctaw route.
September 28, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—The United States jail is this morning minus eleven prisoners. Last night Marshal Bennett went to the penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with the following names lawbreakers: Mont Ballard, kidnapping, ten years; John A. Ball, selling liquor, five years; William Harrison, larceny, five years; William Johnson, larceny, five years; William Langley, larceny, five years; Levi Littlejohn, larceny, five years; Goback Mayes, larceny, five years. Robert Scott, larceny, two years and six months; Albert Vaughan, larceny, five years; Charles Younger, larceny, one year and two months; William F. Bobo, jail breaking, returned to complete his sentence.
October 5, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Crockett Lee came down from McAlester Tuesday evening to take deputy’s place, made vacant by the resignation of W. W. Bradshaw.
October 5, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—W. W. Bradshaw, who has been deputy marshal at this place for some time, has resigned his position. The people are sorry to lose so good a man. He certainly was the best marshal that we’ve had at this place for a long time. He was not the kind that when a prisoner was about to prove his innocence, would hold up his hand and say “Swear me, Judge.”
October 12, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—There was a red hot poker game in Guthrie the other night between a Chinaman, a cowboy and an undertaker, says an exchange. The Chinaman held four aces; the cowboy held a gun and the undertaker held an inquest.
October 12, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Poteau--Sheriff Carney and Indian Police Sage seized the stock in trade o f a pack peddler in this city yesterday, upon his refusal to pay a permit. The stock consisted of $100 worth of notions and $25 worth of jewelry. UP to an early hour this morning the man had not settled.
October 12, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Marshal Grady, of the Central District has offered by the direction of the Attorney General $600 for the arrest and conviction of Jasper Simpson, charged with killing L. S. Hill and J. b. Grady, the later the Marshal’s
October 12, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Al Jennings, the convicted Oklahoma train robber who is serving a life sentence in Columbus, O., prison was about to escape one day recently. He had sawed the steel bars in two and al was ready for a general delivery of prisoners when his plans were frustrated by George Goodell’s giving him away. Goodell is the man who killed two men in Nowata some months ago.
October 12, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—United States Judge Townsend has sentence Pat and Morris O’Malley and Frank Jennings, members of the Jennings gang of train robbers, to seven years each in the United States penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for complicity in the Rock Island railway robbery of 1897. Al Jennings, leader of the gang, who was formerly a lawyer in Texas, is serving a life sentence for the same offense.
COAL MINES
October 26, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Coalgate has eight coal mines and four strip-pits. A strike has been on among the union miners since the first of last March, but the operators have placed non-union men in the mines and the production of coal is steadily increasing. At present the product of the camp is about 28 car loads of coal per day. The following are the names of the mines and operators:
“Sunshine”—James Farrimond & Sons operators, under lease from the Southwestern Co.
“Tight Wad”—George Adams operator.
“Pinch Along”—Davidson and McGinnis operators, under lease from Southwestern. This mine has been idle for sometime, but Messrs, Davidson and McGinnis are making preparations to resume operations in a short time.
“The Soup-bone”—James Farrimond operator, under lease from J. B. McDougall.
“The Dead-horse”—Perry Brothers operators.
“Hole in the Road”:--George Vermette & Son operators, under lease from Southwestern.
The Southwestern Coal and Improvement Co.’s two mines No. 4 and No. 9.
Besides the above mines we have four large strip mines—James McGinnis; James Farrimond; Robert Breedlove and W. F. Brewer.
October 26, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Deputy Marshal Joe McKee is one of the best known criminal officers in this section of the southwest. He has been on duty a long time and many criminals are now doing time and may have done time because of his fearless vigilance. He is the best posted man on the status of criminal affairs across the river one can find in many days travel, hence the following comment on the Indian Territory is interesting and encouraging: “I don’t think I ever saw a time when there was as little violation of law in a serious way in the Indian Territory as at present. Where crime was the rule a few months ago it is just as peaceable and quiet as it is right here in Sherman. The improvement has been steady however, for y ears and the situation now is not a lull or a calm before a storm.--Sherman Register
November 9, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—Kid Glass, colored, shot and killed Furr West of Checotah two weeks ago. He was arrested in two days afterward and in trying to escape somebody pumped a bit of lead into and through his right leg. Glass’ leg was a brittle as glass when a Winchester ball struck it and he was brought here on a stretcher. Saturday Doctors Blakemore and Thompson went to the mail and amputated the leg.
December 21, 1899—The Coalgate Courier—A Paris dispatch says: Dr. J. H. Miller returned last night from his ranch near Goodland, I. T. and reported that as he was coming back he met United States Deputy Marshal Everridge and Paul Stephens, one of the governor’s light horsemen with a number of hunters and trappers in town, whom they had arrested in Neshoba County on the charge of violating the game law and were conveying them to Antlers.
February 15, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—Bill Cook died yesterday in the penitentiary at Albany, New York. He was sentenced in 1895 to forty-five years imprisonment for highway robbery. Cook was a Cherokee and lived about Tahlequah and in the country west toward Grand River. Half dozen years ago he was considered one of the worst desperadoes in all the western country. He died of consumption. Not long ago his friend in the Cherokee Nation endeavored to obtain a pardon for him that he might come home to die, as the prison physicians informed him that he could not possible live more than a short time. Nothing came of the effort and yesterday afternoon he passed away.
May 3, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—An Ardmore dispatch, dated the 27th says: Deputy Marshal Robert Hutchins, acting on a warrant, arrested U. Wilson, a Chickasaw Indian, last night near here, charging him with the murder of Tom Tee, an Indian recently murdered near Mill Creek. Tee was shot and his dead body tied to his horse. Deceased was heir to a valuable Indian estate.
May 3, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—Deputy Bob Fortune came up from Wilburton last night, bringing C. R. Ward, who is charged with being an accessory before the fact to the shooting of Jack Hays by George McCurdy in the company store there Thursday. It is alleged that McCurdy went to Ward and told him that he wanted to borrow his gun to kill Hays and with and got it. Not withstanding the wounded man was shot four times, it is said he will recover.
May 10, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—Deputy Marshal Lee brought in a 5 gallon keg of whiskey which he found at Hartshorne yesterday and this morning he took it down in the street and poured out its contents. There were near a hundred witnesses along the sidewalk when the pouring act was done and some of these groaned aloud at the terrible waste of so much whiskey when they had not had a drink, some of them, for years.
June 7, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—Yesterday Deputy Marshal George Miller and posse made a raid on the dives northeast of the depot and there was all sorts of consternation at Mrs. Quinn’s where the officers found quite a crowd assembled and caught the old lady in the act of drawing a can of beer from a fresh keg. She was badly scared and said she had made the beer for her daughter, who way lying in a bed sick. Asked what so many men were doing there she said they were doctors who had come to see her sick daughter. Deputy Miller took down the names of the “doctors,” whom he suspects of practicing without a license from the Choctaw medical board and will report them to Secretary Haily, after which he says he will give them to Capital for publication. On account of the sickness of the girl no arrests were made, but the barrel of beer was poured out and the barrel broken. South McAlester Capital
June 21, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—Miss Mary Antoine, a full-blood Indian girl, has just been appointed official typewriter and stenographer at the Sac and Fox Indian Agency in Oklahoma. Miss Antoine bears the distinction of being the only full-blood Indian woman in the world who operates a typewriter. She is a rapid and accurate stenographer.
July 19, 1900—The Coalgate Courier--Deputy Marshal Jones brought in from Checotah this morning Billy Sizemore and Lobie Alexander, two Creek Indian youths. Sizemore is charged with larceny and Alexander with assisting or attempting to assist Sizemore in eluding arrest. Alexander was tried this morning on the charge of carrying concealed weapons and discharged. Sizemore is charged with stealing a horse and buggy in the Osage Nation. He has done time in Fort Leavenworth before.
July 19, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—James Poole is dead and the Barker band of outlaws—three in number—are behind the bars as the result of a desperate battle which took place in the Osage hills about 40 miles southwest of here Monday. Poole was president of the Anti Horse Thief Association of the Indian Territory and his home was near Vinita in the Cabin Creek country. The Barker gang had been operating in that country and had stolen several horses from Poole where upon he and two companions—
Al Dunlap and Jesse Spencer—started in pursuit of the thieves. The latter fled westward and crossed the Osage line just below this town. Poole and his Posse, by some means, passed them and Sunday night, reached the house of a farmer named Harlow, about forty miles southwest of here. During the night the outlaws put up at the same place. In the morning Poole and his men had just sat down on them with their Winchesters and the gang all threw hands up but Barker, the leader. He whipped out his six-shooter and in an instant, shots were exchanged. Dunlap and Spencer succeeded in placing the three outlaws under arrest and later, turned them over to the United State authorities at Pawhuska. Poole’ body was brought to this city Monday and then taken to his home Tuesday. Denison Herald
August 30, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—A western jury recently returned the following verdict: “We find the prisoner guilty as charted, but we do not believe that he is the right man.”
Anti-Horse Thief Association
October 11, 1900—The Coalgate Courier—The grand lodge of the Anti-Horse Thief Association of Oklahoma will meet in Oklahoma City on the 17th of this month. The session will continue through three days. J. C. Shackelford says president Kirkwood wrote him that he expects 1,000 in that city on that occasion. The organization is composed of 225 subordinate lodges, which cover almost the entire Territory. The purpose of the organization is to protect the livestock of the members from the depredation of thieves.
Will Not Take Allotments;
October 25, 1900—The Coalgate Courier--A special to the Dallas News :from Muscogee, of the 20th says: Harjo Fixico, a representative of the full-blood Creek Indians, who are opposing any change in their tribal affairs, left here today for Washington, where he hopes to obtain an - interview with President McKinley.
Fixico is a full blood Creek and, through an interpreter 'last night gave out the following statement, which is born out by other testimony:
"Chief Porter," said Harjo, “I sent Indian police to our camp ground. We knew they were coming, but paid no attention to- them. What did Capt. Ellis and his policemen see? I'll tell you. They saw in this council eighteen Choctaws, four Chickasaws, six Seminoles and five Cherokees, all full bloods besides two-score Creeks. They saw twenty-five Winchester rifles; they saw that our council fire was guarded, but they did not see how many of our friends were within close call.
We had plenty of our brethren there, whom are sworn to stand by the treaty of '66 and not take allotment of lands. We had in our council fire ashes brought from Alabama and we have sworn by the sacred ashes to oppose Gen. Porter and defeat the ratification of any treaty. The policemen left this morning for Okmulgee and I left for Washington. I am going to see the Great Father and tell hint that we will never agree to allotment and we will stand by the old treaties. Our council will adjourn tomorrow on Sunday, and our brethren of the other tribes will go home, but we meet again."
D. M. Wisdom, formerly Indian Agent at this place, in speaking of the action of the full bloods, stated that there need be no danger apprehended. "The whole gang is as stubborn as mules and equally as ignorant."
Representatives of other tribes meeting with them was not a good sign, but he was confident that Indian Agent Shoenfielt and his Indian policemen could handle them