John H. Querry to R. B. Quinn

 

 

Querry, John H. was first commissioned in June of 1898, as deputy marshal.  On October 1, 1904, Deputy Marshal Querry was appointed as office deputy by Marshal Leo Bennett in the Western District at Sapulpa and resigned in April of 1906.  Querry was living at Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1930. (The Lenora Leader - April 20, 1906; April 26, 1907) (Indian Pioneer History - W.F. Jones) (Experience of A U.S. Deputy Marshal) (Picture - Notable Men of Indian Territory)

 

Querry

John

H.

D.U.S. Marshal

Muskogee

October 1, 1904

 

Rites Set For Law Officer of Early Day

John H. Querry to Be Buried In Tulsa Cemetery

 

January 6, 19039—The Oklahoman—Funeral services for John H. Queery, 70 years old, a pioneer deputy United States marshal of Sapulpa and of Tulsa, who died Wednesday, will be Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the Full Gospel tabernacle in Tulsa.

          Querry had lived here three years with a son, Ben Querry, rural route 5.  He made the run into Oklahoma in 1889 settling in Payne County.  Before statehood he was a deputy marshal at Sapulpa, and after statehood was a justice of the peace in Tulsa several times.  Survivors are his wife, the son here, and a sister, Mrs. C. A. Simon, Riverbank, California.

 

Quigly, Bruce was commissioned on May 28, 1886, in the Western District at Ft. Smith, Arkansas, serving under Marshal Jacob.  On March of 1887, Quigly arrested A. L. Lawson and George Wassel on charges of deadly assault.  Lawson shot and seriously wounded a man named Burns on February 3, 1887 and Wassel stabbed Henry Royce.  He worked with Deputy Marshal John Mershon when they arrested Booley July, a Negro-Choctaw mixed blood, who was wanted for murder.  Booley July operated a gang of Negroes and mixed bloods in the Boggy Depot area.  The gang was involved in performing highway robbery along the old Stage Trail. Anyone traveling through their area were in danger of becoming a victim.  The gang robbed their victims operating on the theory that dead men tell no tales.  A number of dead bodies were found in the creeks within their area, which were possibly their victims.  The gang was able to escape prosecution because they were classified as Freedmen, and Indians who did not fall in the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal court.  The Indian police possibly looked at the whites traveling Indian Territory as intruders and found it easier to turn their head than come against the band of devils. The number of incidents became so great that travelers were warned to stay away from the old stage trail.  Another route, several miles east which ran from Atoka to Dennison, Texas was recommended.  As a threat to the deputy marshals, Booley made an open brag that he would not be taken alive.  Possibly one of the most cowardly and repulsive crimes ever committed in Indian Territory occurred when a white man, his wife and teen-age daughter traveled through this area completely unaware of the danger.  The family was traveling across the Choctaw Nation in their horse drawn wagon when they decided to make camp before darkness.  Little did they know that they had entered into the Devil’s infested lair.  The family had finished their evening meal and was resting around the campfire when they heard a voice come from the darkness.  The voice ordered the husband to come to him.  The family, petrified in fear, refused the demands, but the voice stated that if the man refused, danger would come to his family.  The man knowing he had no other choice, entered into the darkness where he was shot and killed.  Booley July took all of the man’s possessions, his wife and daughter.  The man’s wife and daughter were taken to an area where the gang lived in individual cabins.  Here the Devil, Booley took the man’s wife and sent the daughter to one of his demon’s homes.  For several weeks the mother and daughter were passed house-to-house being forced to perform repulsive acts and placed under shameful torture.  Tiring from their perverted pleasure, Booley and his gang went back to the Stage Trail looking for new victims.  The time had finally came for the women to try to escape.  The mother and daughter found a sympathetic person that took them to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, where they met Judge Parker.  After listening to their story, Judge Parker summoned Deputy Marshals Mershon and Quigly to arrest Booley July.  The two deputy marshals formed a party of deputies and went to the Boggy Depot area to apprehend Booley July.  After arriving at Booley’s lair, Deputy Marshal Quigly went to Booley’s home where he told Booley there was a misunderstanding on a warrant for his arrest. To clear the mistake Booley needed to go to the federal court in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, where he would be released after the matter was cleared up.  Booley July, realizing that he could not defeat the deputy marshal force, decided his only chance to stay alive was to be reprieved by Judge Parker.  Booley July agreed to go with Quigly and Mershon if they would allow him to keep his pistol.  Deputy Marshal Mershon allowed Booley to keep his pistol knowing he would have to disarm him along the trail to Ft. Smith.  Mershon, a very large Frenchmen, gave out covers as the night turned cool.  As Mershon placed a cover over Booley, a pistol was shoved in Mershon’s face.  Mershon, using his size and weight, forced the pistol back into Booley’s body, taking the weapon from him.  Booley July went to the gallows for his cowardly deeds.  In April of 1888, he served a warrant of arrest to Charles Williams on charges of introducing and selling liquor in Indian Territory and to Lewellen Grant on charges of burning two miles of cotton on the Frisco. 

(Ft. Smith Elevator - March 25, 1887; April 6, 1888) (Indian Pioneer History - H. Lee Jackson) (Indian Pioneer History - H. Lee Jackson) (Ft. Smith Federal Court Employee Database) (Ft. Smith Oaths of Office) (Ft. Smith Historical List)

 

Quillen, Bill was commissioned in Oklahoma Territory, working out of Dewey County around 1896, working with Deputy Marshals Joe Ventioner and William Holcomb.  The three deputy marshals were summoned to capture George Weightman, alias “Red Buck, “Dead or Alive”.  He was known and feared throughout Oklahoma and Indian Territory, recognized as a “killer for hire” and cold blooded killer.  His deeds were so bad that Bill Doolin kicked him out of his gang after he shot a preacher southwest of Ames who refused to give up his horses.  He was charged in the killing of “D” County Treasurer Fred Hoffman where he shot him in the heart, shoved a pistol into his mouth and blowed out his brains, an act that he did not try to hide.  On September 1, 1895, Red Buck and a friend Charley Smith ambushed and killed Woods County rancher Gus Holland, before rustling his cattle.  On September 15, 1895, the gang took part in robbing a Santa Fe train at Curtis.  In late September, Red Buck and Smith took the cattle they had stolen from Gus Holland to Cleo Springs to try to sell to a rancher who was suspicious and would not take part in their dealings.  After leaving the rancher’s home, “Red Buck” and Smith became concerned that he would turn them into the law so they traveled back to Cleo Springs where they killed him.   Red Buck formed a gang of Texas desperados, Joe Beckham, Hils Loftis, and Elmer “Kid” Lewis.  Joe Ventioner, Billy Quillen and Billy Holcomb all lived in the Taloga and Lenora area, a place where the Dalton and Doolin gang lived for several years.  Perhaps it was the death of Fred Hoffman that woke these three brave men up to the fact that someone had to stop the outlaws.  All three of these men, known to be deadly shots and having very little fear, raised the ire in the gang members when they learned they had been commissioned as U.S. deputy marshals.  Several attempts were made on the lawmen’s lives when they went about their normal duties.  Most of the outlaws stayed in a hideout southwest of Taloga which had an advantage point giving them observation for several miles, from every direction.  Constant pressure from the marshals forced the gang to move south to an area near the Wichita Mountains.  They found they could move back and forth into Texas and southern Indian Territory without to much resistance until the Texas Rangers became involved and confronted the gang in several gun battles, leaving Red Buck seriously wounded, Joe Beckman dead, with “Kid” Lewis and Loftis fleeing back to Texas.  Beckman and Red Buck made acquaintances with two young girls in the Taloga area whom Beckman married and left a fatherless child and a young girl named Laura Smith to mourn Red Buck at a later time.  in February of 1896, wounded and hunting for a place to stay, Red Buck ended up just west of Arapaho at the dugout of W.W. Glover.  After putting the two outlaws up for several days, Glover convinced his friends he needed to go to Arapaho to pick up supplies, chiefly ammunition and whiskey.  However, his trip was made for another motive, to turn in his guests whom he felt were worth a lot of money, “Dead or Alive”.  His only stop was made at the office of the Indian police whom he felt could muster enough fire power to bring down the outlaws.  A plan was made by Glover and the outlaws for him to fire a warning shot when he came back, indicating that everything was clear.  The police and Glover prepared another plan, after he fired the warning shot he would be given enough time to take cover before they gunned down the two outlaws.  Everything went as planned, the warning shot was fired, the outlaws left the cover of the dugout but the police did not wait for Glover to get clear, they started shooting leaving him standing just a few feet directly in front of Miller and Red Buck.  Within a few seconds Glover was history, being shot to death as the killers made their departure to safety. On March 3, 1896, Ventioner, Quillen and Holcomb while riding with a posse in search of the killers received word the two outlaws were holed up in a dugout southwest of Arapaho or north of Canute, along  Oak Creek.  Arriving at the dugout during the night, the lawmen decided to wait out the cold misty night and attack during the early morning.  Ventioner and Holcomb took shelter in a small shed used to house horses while Quillen moved to the back side of the dugout to prevent them from leaving out of an escape hatch.  Two hours before daylight, George Miller and Pickelsimer, the owner of the dugout, walked toward the barn unaware of what awaited them.  With guns leveled at their faces they were ordered to surrender.  George Miller drew his pistol and started firing, before making a wild dash, back toward the dugout.  Hearing the commotion and gun battle “Red Buck” came to the entrance of the dugout, trying to help his friends where he was confronted by Joe Ventioner, who supposedly fired the round that ended Red Buck’s life.  Seeing his friend fall to his death, George Miller fired a round into Ventioner’s body striking him in the left hip which exited out of his lower abdomen.  Holcomb was right on the heels of George Miller, firing at him at close range, striking his cartridge belt that caused several cartridges to explode bringing about a very serious wound which could have been mortal.  Adding to George Miller’s luck, Pickelsimer evaded the posse, getting into the dugout where he found Miller bleeding profusely.  His right hand was severed at the wrist and on the left hand the middle three fingers were blown completely off, leaving only the thumb and little finger.  Hot ashes and soot were applied to the wounds to sear the flesh to stop the bleeding, an act done by Pickelseimer which saved Miller’s life.  Weak from loss of blood and almost succumbed, Miller surrendered to the authorities, knowing there was no way out for him this time.  Pickelsimer was arrested for harboring fugitives which got him a trip to the Arapaho jail.   Quillen and Ventioner were paid $150 reward from Woods County for killing George Weightman, alias “Red” Buck alias “Charles Evans” for the murder of Gus Holland.  The Cimarron News reported the killing of Sam Hyser an old “T Anchor” man.  Bill Quillen and Jack Campbell were held for the murder which occurred in Canon City, Colorado.  Quillen was reported as having relatives in Taloga, Cheyenne country. 

(Western Oklahoman - April 3, 1896) (The Cimarron News - August 25, 1898) (Clinton Daily News, Gerald Green - April 16, 1998) (Dewey County Record - July 29, August 5, 1999)

 

Quimby, John was assigned to the Oklahoma District on July 15, 1893, appointed by Marshal Evett Nix.  On February 1896, Deputy Marshal Quimby was stationed in the Shawnee District when Marshal Nagle replaced Marshal Evett Nix.  In February of 1896, Quimby worked with Deputy Marshal Charles Colcord during the opening of the Cherokee Strip at Perry.  Sam and John Quimby were assigned to the Shawnee District.

(West of Hell’s Fringe) (U.S. Deputy Marshals, I. T. & O. T., 1893 - 1896)  Member of Cherokee Strip Cow Punchers’ Association

 

Quimby

John

D.U.S. Marshal

Shawnee

March 11, 1905

 

TOOK THEM IN

Experience of Oklahoma Officers and Their Prisoners

 

November 28, 1895—The Oklahoma Leader--Deputy Marshals John Quimby and Ike Renfro captured a gain of “light goods” men ad their moulds and outfit last week down in the Seminole court.  After the roundup the boys felt pretty good; a gang of deputies from the Fort Smith district swooped down upon them and took the whole gang to Fort Smith.  Hey said they had no right to be in that district and as they were on forbidden soil they would pinch’em, which they did.  The rest of the gang of marshals doesn’t say much but they grin from ear to ear when they see Johnny and Ikey.

 

 

Quinn

R.

B.

Enid

U. S. Marshal

April 15, 1905

 

July 26, 1925—The Oklahoman—R. B. Quinn will be sworn in as United States marshal for the western district of Oklahoma Judge Cotteral in open court at Guthrie Thursday morning.  Quinn was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death of Ewers White, who died here May 25.  Since the death of White the marshal’s office has been filled by Duke Stallings, who has held the office of chef deputy under several marshals who have served during the past twelve years.