Adair County Oklahoma Biographies

Adair County, Oklahoma Biographies

Busheyhead Family

Sammy Jack Claphan
1956-2001

Sammy Jack Claphan was born to Jack and Carolyn (Doublehead) Claphan on October 10, 1956 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He attended Zion School and graduated from Stillwell High School in 1974. He made the All American Football team. Sam was recruited by Barry Switzer of Oklahoma University. He received a degree in Special Educaton. At the completion of his college football career he was chosen in Round 2 of the 1979 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns as an offensive tackle. Sam was traded in 1981 to the San Diego Chargers were he played until 1987. He retired from NFL football in 1988. He was inducted into the Native American Hall of Fame in 1994. Sam taught special education at Moore and Midwest City before returning to Stilwell to teach in the Middle School. Sam died unexpectedly on November 26, 2001 of a heart attack in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. He was preceeded in death by his father Jack Claphan, his grandparents: Sam and Adeline Doublehead and Harry and Dora Claphan. He was survived by his wife Linda, his beloved daughter Amber Rene' and beloved son Erik Samuel. He is also survived by his mother Carolyn Claphan, two sisters: Brenda Bean and husband Sanford and Wanda Hatfield and husband Roger, two brothers: Larry Claphan and wife Levanda and J. R. Claphan and wife Shawna. His services were held at the Stilwell Middle School. Recently family members attended a groundbreaking at the McCarty Center to break ground on Camp ClapHans which will specialize in children with special needs. Uwe von Schamann, the McCarty Center's director of development, was a teammate of Claphan. They both later played professional football and trained together in the off season.

FRANK STAPLER HOWARD

1873-1935

Born near what is now Wauhillau, in Adair County, Oklahoma, on January 30, 1873; son of Frank Howard, who was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on November 26, 1840, and who, removing to the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, in 1868, founded the Town of Baron, now in Adair County, Oklahoma. In 1870 Frank Howard was united in marriage with Sallie Starr, daughter of Joseph (Noon) McMann Starr and Delilah Starr, a Cherokee family, prominent among the Cherokees both east and west. To that union three children came, to-wit: Ollie, who is the wife of Bry Dillon and who now resides at Hot Springs, Arkansas, Percy P., and Frank Stapler Howard, the former now residing at Baron, Oklahoma. On April 15, 1877, occurred the death of Delilah Starr. In 1880 Frank Howard took a second wife in the person of Miss Josephine Landrum, daughter of Dave Landrum. One child was the issue of this second marriage, Josephine, now Mrs. Andrew Rogers of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.

Frank Stapler Howard attended the tribal schools of the Cherokee Nation and the high school at Joplin, Missouri. After reaching his majority he engaged in farming and agricultural pursuits near Miami, on a farm he owned at the time of his death. After about fifteen years he removed to Baron where he engaged in the general mercantile business. He also organized the Guaranty Bank at Watts, Oklahoma, and the Peoples Bank at Westville, Oklahoma. Afterwards the bank at Watts was removed to Westville and consolidated with the Peoples Bank of which he was president at the time of his death. For four years, from 1911 to 1915, he was chairman of the Board of County Commissioners for Adair County. In 1923 he was again elected a member of this board serving the term from 1923 to 1924.

In 1895 he was married to Miss Callie Allen, a daughter of F. F. and Sarah Allen, who resided near Miami, Oklahoma, and who died in 1899, leaving surviving as a result of said union two children: Catherine, now Mrs. John Crass of Tulsa, and Manila Dewey, now Mrs. D. L. Rickenbrode of Port Arthur, Texas. In May 1901 Mr. Howard and Miss Ella B. Clyne, daughter of John and Jennie Clyne of Baron, were married, and to this second marriage came four children; Sallie, now Mrs. Loring Ross, Ella Mae, now Mrs. E. G. Carroll, Eddie Starr Howard, all of Baron, and Grover Franklin Howard of Westville, Oklahoma.

On reaching his majority he gave his political allegiance to the Democratic party in the activities of which he bore a prominent part. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and fraternally a member of the Elks and Masons. During the World War he was chairman of War Savings Stamp campaign in Adair County, Superintendent of the Fourth Red Cross drive, also the Liberty Loan drives, and was a member of the War Exemption Board of said county. When the Muskogee Production Credit Corporation was organized, in the early part of 1934, Mr. Howard became its first president and continued to act in that capacity until his death. With the development of the fruit, vegetable and garden industries in his county he engaged in the canning business and at the height of the season employed as many as 150 people at Baron. He was also one of the most extensive landowners in said county.

Mr. Howard was killed on the afternoon of July 17, 1935, by a bolt of lightning, and was buried in the family cemetery near his home at Saxon on July 19, 1935. He was a man of unbounded energy, never idle, but finding pleasure in work and industry, ever evincing a desire to be of assistance to his neighbor and friend, aiding them reasonably in every work. During the depression many of his neighbors were not only fed but their children also were protected from the cold by shoes and clothing provided by him; whilst being a capable and sound business man, yet he showed a spirit of benevolence and philanthropy. He was a leader in laying the foundation of the road system in Adair County. A man of good judgment with a fair vision into the future, with an optimistic spirit yet he was firm and courageous in his conviction. Adair County has lost its leading citizen who was never too busy to aid in any movement for its benefit and development.

Source: Chronicle of Oklahoma Vol. 13 #3 Sep 1935 Pages 365-366 written by R.L. Williams, submitted by Linda Craig

Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, lives on the land which was allotted to her paternal grandfather, John Mankiller, just after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Surrounded by the Cherokee Hills and the Cookson Hills, she lives in a historically rich area where a person's worth is not determined by the size of their bank account or portfolio. Her family name "Mankiller" as far as they can determine, is an old military title that was given to the person in charge of protecting the village. As the leader of the Cherokee people she represented the second largest tribe in the United States, the largest being the Dine (Navajo) Tribe. Mankiller was the first female in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe. With an enrolled population of over 140,000, and an annual budget of more than $75 million, and more than 1,200 employees spread over 7,000 square miles, her task may have been equalled to that of a chief executive officer of a major corporation.
Initially, Wilma's candidacy was opposed by those not wishing to be led by a woman. Her tires were slashed and there were death threats during her campaign. But now as Wilma shares her home with her husband, Charlie Soap, and Winterhawk, his son from a previous marriage, things are very different. She has won the respect of the Cherokee Nation, and made an impact on the culture as she has focused on her mission - to bring self-sufficiency to her people.
"Prior to my election, " says Mankiller, "young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief." Mankiller had been asked by Ross Swimmer, then President of a small bank, who assumed leadership of the Cherokee Nation in 1975. He convinced Mankiller to run as his deputy chief. They won. In 1985, Swimmer resigned as chief to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Cherokee law mandated that the deputy chief assume the duties of the former chief.
In the historic tribal elections of 1987, Mankiller won the post out-right and brought unprecedented attention to the tribe as a result. "We are a revitalized tribe," said Mankiller,"After every major upheaval, we have been able to gather together as a people and rebuild a community and a government. Individually and collectively, Cherokee people possess an extraordinary ability to face down adversity and continue moving forward. We are able to do that because our culture, though certainly diminished, has sustained us since time immemorial. This Cherokee culture is a well-kept secret."
Mankiller attibutes her understanding of her peoples history partially to her own families forced removal, as part of the government's Indian relocation policy, to California when she was a young girl . Her concern for Native American issues was ignited in 1969 when a group of university students occupied Alcatraz Island in order to attract attention to the issues affecting their tribes. Shortly afterwards, she began working in preschool and adult education programs in the Pit River Tribe of California.
In 1974, she divorced her husband after eleven years of marriage when their views of her role continued to widen. She moved back to her ancestral lands outside of Tahlequah, and immediately began helping her people by procuring grants enabling them to launch critical rural programs. In 1979 she enrolled in the nearby University of Arkansas, and upon returning home from class was almost killed in a head-on collision in which one of her best friends who had been driving the other car, was killed. After barely avoiding the amputation of her right leg, she endured another seventeen operations. Mankiller says that it was during the long process that she really began reevaluating her life and it proved to be a time of deep spiritual awakening.
Then in 1980, just a year after the accident, she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a chronic neuromuscular disease that causes varying degrees of weakness in the voluntary muscles of the body. She maintains that it was the realization of how precious life is that spurred her to begin projects for her people, such as the Bell project where members of the community revitalized a whole community themselves.
It was the success of the Bell project that thrust Mankiller into national recognition as an expert in community development. The election to deputy chief did not come until two years later. In 1986, Wilma married long time friend and former director of tribal development, Charlie Soap. Mankiller's love of family and community became a source of strength when again a life threatening illness struck. Recurring kidney problems forced Mankiller to have a kidney transplant, her brother Don Mankiller served as the donor. During her convalescence, she had many long talks with her family, and it was decided that she would run again for Chief in order to complete the many community projects she had begun.
She has shown in her typically exuberant way that not only can Native Americans learn a lot from the whites, but that whites can learn from native people. Understanding the interconnectedness of all things, many whites are beginning to understand the value of native wisdom, culture and spirituality. Spirituality is then key to the public and private life of Wilma Mankiller who has indeed become known not only for her community leadership but also for her spiritual presence. A woman rabbi who is the head of a large synagogue in New York commented that Mankiller was a significant spiritual force in the nation.

Emmet McDonald Starr was born December 12, 1870, in Going Snake District, Cherokee Nation, or in what is now Adair County, Oklahoma. His parents were Walter Adair and Ruth A. (Thornton) Starr, the former born at Cane Hill, Arkansas, and the latter near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. They were both members by birthright of the Cherokee Nation. The name Starr is of Irish origin, and Doctor Starr's great-grandfather, Caleb Starr, was a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, was a Pennsylvania Quaker, and early in life went south and married into the Cherokee Indian Tribe. Doctor Starr's mother was a descendant through her father from the Virginia Thorntons of English lineage, and on her mother's side was also of Cherokee stock. The forebears of Doctor Starr came to what is now Eastern Oklahoma prior to the year 1831. He is the oldest in a family of five children, and the other four were: George Colbert Starr, who while in discharge of his duties as a deputy sheriff was killed by a bootlegger or whisky peddler on September 20, 1912 ( Rogers County Sheriff W.E. Sanders and Deputy Starr were checking for bootleggers around the area just north of Collinsville. About 6:40 P.M. they spotted a wagon with three men in it. They stopped the wagon. Sanders went to the front of the wagon and Starr went to the rear. After being ordered to get down off the wagon, one of the bootleggers, as he was getting down, pulled a gun and fired at Starr. Deputy Starr immediately went down, fatally wounded through the heart. Sanders shifted his focus from the man he was holding at gunpoint to the man who was shooting at Starr. Both men began shooting and Sanders was wounded twice in the arm. Two of the three men on the wagon were able to escape, but Sanders was able to hold one man in custody. Sanders returned to Collinsville with the body of Starr and his prisoner, John Ettor. A posse was formed and they pursued the other two men, who were identified as Jack Triplett and the driver, named Guinn. They were captured the following day. Triplett and Ettor were found guilty and given life sentences). ; Mary B. Starr, wife of Dr. Wade H. Vann, formerly of Porum but now of Cement, Oklahoma; Miss Lettie B., who lives with her brother Doctor Starr; and Joseph M. the mother of these children died when the youngest of them was about six years of age. The father married for his second wife Ella Christie of Christie, Adair County, and she became the mother of two children named Jennie and Caleb L. Starr.

In 1871 Doctor Starr's parents removed to what is now Rogers County, Oklahoma, and he grew up in that locality on a farm. His father was a very prominent man in the Cherokee Nation, and for fourteen years held the position of district judge, and was still on the bench when the national government of the Cherokees was dissolved. Doctor Starr was graduated June 28, 1888, from the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, and in 1891 took his degree in medicine from the Barnes Medical College at St. Louis.

He practiced medicine first at Chelsea and then at Skiatook, but after five years of successful work in his profession abandoned it in order to devote his time to his great work as a Cherokee genealogist and historian. On August 5, 1901, Doctor Starr was elected from the Cooweescoowee District to the Cherokee National Council, and he served in that body with credit for two years, one term. That was the last but one of the councils of the Cherokee Nation. In politics Doctor Starr was a democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was a Master Mason.

DEATH OF DR. EMMET STARR.

Everyone who is interested in Oklahoma history was saddened by the announcement that Dr. Emmet Starr, well and widely known as the genealogist and historian of the Cherokee people, died suddenly during the night of January 30, 1930. His remains were brought to his boyhood home, at Claremore, for burial. At this writing, Chronicles of Oklahoma can only quote the brief account of his passing which appeared in the columns of the Claremore Progress
From the Claremore Progress, of February 6:

A man familiar with the early days in Claremore, a student, is dead. Reference is made to Dr. Emmet Starr who was found dead in his room at St. Louis, Mo., Friday morning. News of Dr. Starr's death was received in a telegram to Dr. J. C. Bushyhead, asking what disposition was to be made of the body. Dr. Starr was operating a book store at St. Louis, Mo., at the time of his death. The telegram came from Dr. Joe Mayes, of St. Louis.

Dr. Bushyhead immediately notified Dr. Starr's sisters who reside at Cement, Okla., Dr. Wade Vann, a brother-in-law, residing at Cement, instructed that the body be sent to Claremore and it will be cared for by the Kaff-Musgrove Funeral Home. The day of the funeral is not yet announced.

Dr. Starr never married. He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Vann, wife of Dr. Vann, at Cement, and Mrs. Lettie Raspberry, also of Cement, and one brother, Caleb, who lives near Hanson, Okla.

Dr. Starr was the author of several books on the Cherokee people. One entitled "Early History of the Cherokees," another "Cherokees, West," and a "History of the Cherokee Nation." He commenced the collection of material for genealogical and historical work in 1894.

Dr. Starr was a charter member of the Pocahontas Club, one of the oldest Indian clubs in existence. He was at one time president of same. Dr. Starr was a citizen of Claremore some twenty years ago. He was always of a studious nature. Possibly there was no living man who was as well versed in Cherokee history as this man. He had many warm friends in Claremore who will learn with regret of his passing.

Source: Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume 8, No. 1 March, 1930 submitted by Linda Craig

A white man of Quaker parentage immigrated from Pennsylvania to the Cherokee country (now eastern Tennessee). He was named Caleb Starr, and in about 1790 Caleb married a Cherokee woman named Nancy Harlan, and in so doing he became a member of the Cherokee Nation. They had twelve children, including Ezekial Starr, James Starr, and Joseph Starr. Caleb Starr was involved with both the Treaty of 1816 and the Treaty of 1819, the removal treaties. Cherokee leaders attempted to preserve their remaining eastern lands, and had established a new government by 1828. John Ross was elected principal chief. Ross and his followers opposed removal. Cherokees who willingly immigrated to the new, western lands were known as the "Old Settlers". Caleb Starr and his sons supported emigration. Ezekial Starr and his family travelled to the west in 1834. James Starr became a member of the Treaty Party, which advocated total tribal removal, and with other members he signed the controversial Treaty of 1835. James Starr moved to the western Cherokee Nation in 1837. The remaining eastern Cherokees, under the leadership of John Ross, were forcibly removed to the west in 1838 and 1839 in what became known as the Trail of Tears. These Cherokees were subjected to incredible suffering. Upon arrival in the Indian Territory, the differences between the Ross faction and the Treaty, or Ridge, Party erupted into violence. On June 22, 1839, three leaders of the Treaty Party - Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot - were assassinated by members of the Ross faction. James Starr and Stand Watie were due to be killed the same day, but they found refuge at Fort Gibson. John Ross was elected principal chief of a new, "unified" Cherokee government. In the Cherokee election of 1841, Ezekial Starr was elected to the Cherokee legislature from the Flint District, and his brother James Starr was elected to serve from the Goingsnake District. But the supporters of Chief Ross were still eliminating the supporters of the removal treaty and many murders had been committed. Both sides were after blood. James Starr's son, Thomas Starr, reacted to attempts on his father's life with violence. He was accused of attacking and murdering the entire Benjamin Vore family at their home near Fort Gibson in 1843. The Cherokee civil war included murderers on both sides of the conflict, but the Ross faction labeled Tom Starr an outlaw. A reward of one thousand dollars was offered for his capture. In 1845, Ross followers decided that James Starr would be held accountable for the actions of his son, Tom, and on November 9th they acted. Thirty-two armed men raided the home of James Starr in the Flint District. Starr was gunned down on his front porch, as was his crippled son, Buck. Both were dead. Starr's other three sons barely escaped the massacre. According to Tom Starr, in retaliation he killed every one of the thirty-two men except for those who became sick and died in bed before he could get to them. A truce was called in 1846, and a resulting peace treaty between the two factions included a special clause that "all offenses and crimes committed by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.......are hereby pardoned." It was the opinion of many Cherokees that the pardon was for Tom Starr. Tom moved to land in the southern portion of the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, near present Briartown. Tom Starr served in the Civil War as a scout for General Stand Watie and became acquainted with Quantrill. After the war, some of Quantrill's former guerrillas came to visit Tom, one of them being Cole Younger. Tom's ranch became known as "Youngers Bend". Tom raised eight sons, including George and Sam Starr. In 1873 George's son Henry Starr was born. In 1880, Tom's son Sam married Myra Belle Shirley. She became known as "Belle Starr".

Henry Starr {1874-1921} was born near Fort Gibson in Indian Territory on December 2, 1873 to George “Hop” Starr, a half-breed Cherokee, and Mary Scot Starr, a woman of Irish decent and one-quarter Cherokee. Mary came from an educated and respectable family, but the Starr side of the family was rife with outlaws. Henry’s grandfather was Tom Starr, an outlaw in his own right. Henry would later say that his grandfather “was known far and wide as the Devil’s own. In all matters where law and order was on one side, Tom Starr was on the other.” Henry was an American outlaw, specifically, a horse thief and train robber. He was also convicted of murder once, of U.S. Deputy Marshal Floyd Wilson on December 13, 1892. Henry Starr claimed in court to not have known he was a U.S. Marshal and only to know that a man had opened fire on him without provocation. Distantly related to Belle Starr, he was the last in a long line of Starr family criminals. In 1886, Henry’s father died leaving Mary to care for three children and the family farm. However, within just a few months she remarried a man by the name of C.N. Walker, who Henry hated. Starr felt that Walker was inferior because his veins contained no Indian blood. Walker was also abusive and he and Henry had immediate problems. Within just a few short months of his mother’s remarriage Henry left home. By the age of sixteen, while Henry was working on a ranch near Nowata, in Indian Territory, he had his first run-in with the law. As Henry was driving a wagon to town two deputy marshals caught him with whiskey and arrested him for "introducing spirits into territory." Though he plead guilty to the offense, he maintained that he was innocent, having borrowed the wagon without knowing that the whiskey was in it. Starr returned to Nowata and continued to work as a cowboy, but it wasn’t long before he had another run-in with the law. In December 1891, he was arrested for stealing a horse, again he denied the charge, but was locked up at Fort Smith, Arkansas anyway. His cousin paid his bail and Starr hit the road, with a warrant for his arrest hanging over his head. After jumping bail, Henry had made a conscious choice to live on the wrong side of the law. The warrant for Starr’s arrest was given to Deputy Marshals Henry C. Dickey and Floyd Wilson who were quickly on Henry’s tail.Joining up with Ed Newcome and Jesse Jackson, the gang began to rob stores and railroad depots. Hitting their first railroad depot right where he lived, Starr and his gang relieved the Nowata Depot of $1,700 in July 1892. In November 1892, they hit Shufeldts Store at Lenapah, Indian Territory taking $300 and in the same month robbed Carter’s Store in Sequoyah, Indian Territory making off with $180. Twice sentenced by Judge Isaac Parker to hang for murder, he managed to escape the noose due to technicalities and went on to form a gang that terrorized and robbed throughout northwest Arkansas around the turn of the century. By December 1892, Deputy Marshals Dickey and Wilson were very close to finding Henry. Following his trail, the two marshals arrived at Arthur Dodge’s “XU Ranch,” eight miles from Nowata, where it was rumored that the Starr Gang might be meeting. Upon arriving at the ranch, the marshals questioned Arthur Dodge who denied knowing Starr personally, but stated that he had seen the bandit ride by the ranch several times. The lawmen searched the surrounding countryside until late into the night, but found no trace of Starr or his gang. However, the next day, on December 13, 1892, the two lawmen were having dinner at the Dodge Ranch when Mr. Dodge informed them that he had seen Henry that day while working on the ranch.On January 20, 1893, Starr was nearly caught when Indian Police picked up his trail near Bartlesville, I.T. A gun battle broke out but Starr was able to escape. Teaming up with a man by the name of Frank Cheney, Starr and Cheney robbed the MKT railroad depot of $180 and Haden’s Store of $390 in Choteau, I.T. In February, they hit the railroad depot and general store in Inola, I.T. making off with $220.On July 3, 1893, they checked into the Spaulding House. Henry registered as Frank Johnson and the Kid registered as John Wilson, both from Joplin, Missouri. However, officers discovered they were there and Starr was arrested in the restaurant. Later they picked up Wilson in Colorado City. Returning to the Spaulding House, they woke up the woman, who was registered as Mrs. Jackson, but who admitted to being Starr’s wife of six months. In a search of the room, the lawmen found $1,460 in greenbacks and about $500 in gold. Starr and Wilson were returned to Fort Smith, Arkansas on July 13, 1893 to stand trial. Starr was charged with thirteen counts of highway robbery, and one count of murder. The trial revolved around the murder charge and Starr was found guilty by Judge Isaac Parker and sentenced to hang. Henry's lawyers appealed the case and the U.S Supreme Court overturned Parker's decision and granted Starr a new trial. He was found guilty at the second trial and again sentenced to hang, but again his lawyers were able to appeal and get Henry yet another trial. At the third trial trail Henry plead guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a total of 15 years -- 3 for manslaughter, 7 years for each 7 counts of robbery and 5 years for 1 count of train robbery. On January 15, 1898, Henry Starr was transported to the federal prison at Columbus, Ohio. In 1901, Henry, with help from his family and the Cherokee Tribal Government, applied for a pardon. President T. Roosevelt so admired the man for his courage in the Cherokee Bill incident that he reduced his sentence and Henry was released from prison on January 16, 1903. After his release from prison, Henry returned to Tulsa, I. T. and worked in his mother's restaurant. It was here he met and married his second wife, Miss Ollie Griffin in September 1903. A Short time later, in 1904 Theodore Roosevelt Starr was born. Henry led an honest life for a while until officials in Arkansas learned of Starr’s release. They immediately began seeking his extradition for the 1893 Bentonville robbery. Henry took to the safety of the Osage Hills, quickly falling in with his old partners. Later, he would write, “I preferred a quiet and unostentatious interment in a respectable cemetery rather than a life on the Arkansas convict farm.” In November 24, 1908, Henry plead guilty to the Amity robbing and was sentenced to 7 - 25 years in the Canon City, Colorado Prison. During his imprisonment, Henry worked as a trustee, studied law in the prison library and wrote his autobiography entitled 'Thrilling Events, Life of Henry Starr'. On September 24, 1913, he was paroled by the governor and was free again, with the stipulation that he never leave the state of Colorado. Starr did not keep his promise, instead returning to Oklahoma, and his old ways. Between September 8, 1914, and January 13, 1915, fourteen different bank robberies were attributed to Henry Starr. All were daylight robberies, carried off quickly and efficiently, at two-week intervals. This was the worst streak of robberies the people of Oklahoma had ever witnessed, and in response to the cries of the citizens, the state legislature passed the “Bank Robber Bill,” which appropriated $15,000 for the capture of bank robbers and placed a $1,000 bounty on Starr’s head. The reward was payable "Dead or Alive". Then on March 27, 1915 Henry and six other men rode into the town of Stroud, Oklahoma. Starr’s plan was to rob two banks at the same time, much as the Dalton Gang had unsuccessfully tried to do in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892. The Stroud, Oklahoma robbery would prove almost as disastrous for Henry Starr. Proceeding to rob the Stroud National Bank and the First National Bank, word of the holdup spread quickly and the citizens took up arms against the bandits. Henry and another outlaw named Lewis Estes were wounded and captured in the gun battle. The rest of the gang escaped with $5815, thus pulling off a double daylight bank robbery. After Starr recovered from his wound, he stood trial and entered a plea of guilty to the Stroud Robbery on August 2, 1915. Sentenced to 25 years, he was transferred to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma. While in prison at McAlester, Starr began speaking of the foolishness of a life of crime, urging young people to stay honest and earn their money in a legal manner. “I’m 45 years old now,” Starr told a reporter from the Oklahoma World, “And 17 of my 45 years have been spent ‘inside.’ Isn’t that enough to tell any boy that there’s nothing to the kind of life I have led?” The good words had the proper effect. Starr was paroled in on March 15, 1919. While he was imprisoned in 1915, wrote his memoirs and even portrayed himself in a silent movie, 'A Debtor to the Law' in 1919. It was during his time in the movies that Henry met and married his third wife, Hulda Starr from Salisaw, Oklahoma. They were married on February 22, 1920 and moved to Claremore, Oklahoma. Nevertheless, Starr could not live the life an honest man for very long. On Friday morning, February 18, 1921, Henry and three companions drove into Harrison, Arkansas. They entered the People's State Bank and robbed it of $6000. During the robbery, Henry was shot in the back by the former president of the bank, and his partners fled, leaving him to face the music alone. He was carried to the jail where doctors removed the bullet. Obviously proud of his record, he boasted to the doctors on Monday, February 21, 1921 "I've robbed more banks than any man in America." The next morning he died from his wound with his wife, Hulda, his mother and his 17-year-old son at his side. Henry died as he had lived, in a violent manner, but true to the code of the outlaws, he never revealed a single partner in any crime. He never shot anyone in the commission of a crime, and served his time in jail like a man. He had succeeded where others had failed by robbing two banks at once, and by robbing more banks than anyone else. During his 32 years in crime, he claimed to have robbed more banks than both the James-Younger Gang and the Doolin-Dalton Gang put together. He started robbing banks on horseback in 1893 and ended up robbing his last in a car in 1921. Allegedly, he robbed 21 banks during his outlaw career making off with nearly $60,000.00.

Sam Star was married on June 5, 1880 to Mrs. Myra Belle Shirley Reed, widow of an outlaw named James C. Reed. After their marriage, neither Belle nor Sam appeared in any official record until July 31, 1882, when they were charged with horse stealing. The charges stemmed from the Starrs’ roundup in the spring of 1882. They were working horses on a neighbor’s land and sought his permission to pen some of the animals in his corral. He agreed, but when he saw the horses, he pointed out that one belonged to another neighbor, Andrew Crane, and another to Sam Campbell. The Starrs ignored these comments. When they later sold the herd, Crane and Campbell brought charges. Belle and Sam appeared in District Court at Fort Smith on November 7, 1882. The grand jury handed up a true bill for larceny in Indian Territory. Tom Starr made bail for them, and they returned to Younger’s Bend to await trial.The four-day trial was held in ‘Hanging Judge’ Isaac C. Parker’s court early in March 1883. Belle was found guilty on both counts and Sam on only one (since the court lacked jurisdiction in cases where one Indian committed a crime against another). Judge Parker sentenced Sam to 12 months and Belle to two 6-month terms in the House of Correction in Detroit. The judge explained his rare display of leniency by pointing out that this was the first conviction for both defendants and that he hoped they would decide to become decent citizens.The prison was a model institution, dedicated to education and reformation, in addition to punishment. Sam Starr, though, showed no interest in learning and was assigned to hard labor. Belle is reputed to have charmed the warden into appointing her as his ‘assistant.’ In any case, the Starrs were on their way back to Younger’s Bend after serving 9 months. Old Tom Starr had kept the place up for them. Belle and Sam soon busied themselves getting ready for spring planting.Sam's allotment just north of the Canadian River was close to William Keith's uncle, Frank West, who had become a Indian Deputy Sheriff. Six years after Belle married Sam Starr. Both Frank West and Sam Starr were killed Dec 17 1886 in a shoot out. (This is ironic as Frank West was a cousin of Sam Starr and part of the old Tom Starr Gang.) Frank West came to a Christmas party to arrest Sam. Sam drew his gun first and and shot Frank. Frank also pulled his gun and shot and killed Sam Starr . They both died within minutes of each other. After Sam Starr's death, Cherokee authorities were opposed to Belle claiming Sam's land at the bend. She was no longer a Cherokee subject. Belle solved this problem by marring Jim July Starr in 1887. He was sort of an adopted son of Tom Starr. Belle was 39, Jim was 24 and fine looking mixed blood Cherokee. While not as handsome as Sam, he had the same air of reckless indifference.

Thomas Starr (1813-1890), reacted to attempts on his father's life with violence. (background:Upon arrival in the Indian Territory, the differences between the Anti-Treaty or Ross Party and the Pro-Treaty or Ridge Party erupted into violence. On June 22, 1839, three leaders of the Treaty Party - Major Ridge, his son John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot - were assassinated by members of the Ross faction. James Starr and Stand Watie were due to be killed the same day, but they found refuge at Fort Gibson. John Ross was elected principal chief of a new, "unified" Cherokee government in the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. In the Cherokee election of 1841, Ezekiel Starr was elected to the Cherokee legislature from the Flint District, and his brother, James Starr, was elected to serve from the Goingsnake District. However, the supporters of Chief Ross were still eliminating the supporters of the removal treaty and many murders were being committed by both sides) James Starr's son, He was accused of attacking and murdering the Ross supporter and trader, Benjamin Vore and his family, at their home near Fort Gibson in 1843. This Cherokee civil war included murderers perpetrated by both sides to the conflict, but the majority Ross faction labeled Tom Starr an outlaw. A reward of one thousand dollars was offered for his capture. In 1845, Ross followers decided that James Starr would be held accountable for the actions of his son, Tom, and on November 9th they acted. Thirty-two armed men raided the home of James Starr in the Flint District. Starr was gunned down on his front porch, as was his crippled son, Buck. Both were dead. Starr's other three sons barely escaped the massacre. According to Tom Starr, in retaliation, he killed every one of the thirty-two men except for those who became sick and died in bed before he could get to them. A truce was called in 1846, and a resulting peace treaty between the two factions included a special clause that "all offenses and crimes committed by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.......are hereby pardoned." It was the opinion of many Cherokees that the pardon was for Tom Starr. Tom moved to land in the southern portion of the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, near present-day Briartown. Tom Starr served in the Civil War as a scout for General Stand Watie and was acquainted with William Clark Quantrill. After the war, some of Quantrill's former guerrillas frequently came to visit Tom, including Cole Younger and some of his brothers. As a result, that part of the Canadian River near Tom's ranch became known as "Younger's Bend." Tom raised eight sons, including Samuel Starr (1857-1886). In 1880, Sam Starr married Mrs. Myra Belle Shirley Reed, widow of an outlaw named James C. Reed.