OUTLAW NEWS OF CRAIG COUNTY
Cherokee Outlaws Kill Three Deputy
Marshals
Vinita, I.T., March 13 - At an early
hour
Monday morning, while
Deputy
United States Marshal I.L.
Gilstrap, Otis Tittle, and Dick
Carey, of
Vinita, and Than
Wofford,
Pleas Mann, and Andy Dick
of Tahlequah, I.T., were
following their bloodhounds
from the marshal's office in
this
place, trying to
find the
Wickliffe
gang of full
blood Cherokee Indian
outlaws on
Little Saline
Creek,
twenty-five
miles southeast of this
place, they
were suddenly fired upon
from ambush by the
Wickliffe boys,
and as soon as the
smoke cleared away
Deputy
Gilstrap,
Tittle, and Carey
were
found dead on the ground and
Deputies Than
Wofford,
Andy
Dick,
and Pleas Mann rode
rapidly
away among a hail of bullets
from the outlaws, who
were
hidden behind stones. The
horses were killed at the
same time
the officers
were.
The
Wickliffe boys are
desperate
fullblood[sic]
Cherokee
Indians and were
at one
time
peaceable and quiet
citizens.
They attended
the
Cherokee
schools and are well
educated.
Their father
was at one
time one of
the Supreme
Judges of the Cherokee Nation and they have
always been
prominent in Cherokee
politics.
About two
years ago the
three
Wickliffe boys
were wanted by the
officers on a charge of bringing whisky
into the Indian
Territory and were
chased to some extent
by the
deputies
until
finally they
decided they
would not
give up to the deputy marshals that
were
sent out after
them. Deputy
United States Marshal
J.H. Vier was sent out after
them
about a year ago and he had no sooner arrived in the
neighborhood of the
outlaws
than he
was fired upon by the
Wickliffes from ambush and
killed.
Heavily
armed
officers are hurrying
from all
parts of the
territory to the scene where the
Wickliffe
outlaws
at last
reports were still
battling
with the two remaining
officers.
According to the report
received here
the full
blood Indians
are going to the
support of the
Wickliffes, who are
Cherokee
Indians.
Marshal Darrough has wired
the
Department of
Justice at
Washington
asking authority
to swear in 100
additional
deputies and
to offer
$1,000
reward
for each of the
outlaws, dead
or alive.
Source:
Ada
Evening News, March 13,
1906
INDIAN
OUTLAWRY
-------------
RECENT BATTLE WITH OUTLAWS
RECALLS MEMORY OF
TERRITORY
DESPERADOES
-----------
RECORD
OF CRIMES COMMITED
The
Wickliffe Brothers Are Not the
First Band of Indians to
Engage in
Open Outlawry in Indian
Territory
-------------
Special to The
Oklahoman
Vinita, I.T.,
March 17--The sending out by
the
federal officals of
the Northern
district of the
Indian
Territory of
Captain G.W.
White, J.F.
Ledbetter,
and other
deputy United States
Marshals who have been long
in the
service of the government to capture the Wickliffe
brothers, fullblood Indian
bandits,
recalls the fact that
Captain White
led a large force of
deputies
against the
famous Ned
Christie and his band of outlaws in 1892. The
Wickliffe brothers are the second band of fullbloods
that
have engaged in open
outlawery
and
they are even more
fierce and
desperate than the Christie
band.
Captain
White has
had much experience
in
chasing
Indian outlaws and
is one
of the
pioneer deputy
marshals on
the
force. In the
early days of
the
court of the
famous Judge Isaac Parker, in the days of transMississippi
justice Captain White was in charge of the
deputies
detailed to capture the
fullblood
Indian outlaws and his
experience
with the famous Christie
gang
enables him to
render Marshal
Darraugh valuable
assistance.
in the early
part of
1892 Captain White was
detailed to
take a large
force of
deputies
into
the Cherokee
nation
and capture the
Indian
bandits, Ned Christie, Arch Wolfe,
Charley Hare and
others.
Captain White started
out from
Fayetteville, Ark.
with the
following deputies: Paden
Tolbert,
Heck Brunner,
William
Ellis,
John
Tolbert, Wesley Bowman,
A. B.
Allen,
Harry Clayland, E. B.
Patterson, Bill Smith
and Tom
Johnson and a Cherokee
sheriff later
joined them near Christie's
home. This
force reached
Christie's stronghold
about
4
o'oclock a.m.
on
the third day of
November, 1892,
and
surrounded the
fortified port-holed
house
without being
discovered.
About daylight Ned
Christie's two wives both
came out
and
looked around, but the
deputies
were
so well
concealed
that
they
did
not discover them and later
went
back into the house.
Presently Arch
Wolfe emerged
from the house,
Winchester in hand, and began reconnotering.
He
ventured in the neighborhood of
some of the marshals
and
they
demanded his
surrender which he answered with a
shot and broke for the fort under the fire of
the
marshals. He was slightly
wounded in one leg and one arm but succeeded
in regaining
cover. Soon the
women and children came
out and were
permitted to leave the vicinity. As
soon as Wolfe got inside and the women
outside, Ned
Christie gave his usual
war swhoops and wild turkey gobbling and
the fight was
on. Charley
Hare, a full-blood Indian
boy about
18
years of
age, who had worked for
Christie for
several years remained
with Christie
and
Wolfe in the fort
and the
three kept
firing all
day. All trees, stumps and
large stones
having been removed by
Christie
several weeks
previously,
the
deputies were compelled to take
shelter
and fire at long range
while
Christie
and his force shot
through
port
holes in the upper story of his house.
in
the
afternoon Deputy Marshals H.H.
York and Ennis Mills
arrived
with a small
cannon of
three-pound
calibre.
Paden Tolbert being an expert
cannoneer
took charge of the
gun and
opened fire on the
fort. The roar of the
artillery and the
rattle
of the small arms together
with
the
shouts of the
attacking
officers
appeared to rattle
the
outlaws and
they went down
into the
lower
story, which
was
stronger, with no
portholes.
The shots from the
cannon did
nothing more than shake the house and the
marshals realized that they
were up
against the hardest
proposition possible. The
cannon's roar braced
the
attacking
party and had an
intimidating effect upon Christie and his
bandits, who had
theretofore rallied
to his aid from the
outside and
thereby
enabling the
outlaws to beat
the
officers off. At this juncture
the firing
ceased
from within and
the officers were at
a loss to know what had become of
their game.
At sundown
the situation looked
discouraging. All
hands
had
been
fighting and
watching all day with
nothing to eat
since the supper of
the day
before, followed by an
all nights'
march, and Ned
Christie still held
the fort
intact. About this
time
Dave Rusk and Charlie
Copeland
came up,
and their arrival
lent encouragement
to
the
other
officers and soon
operations
were renewed and
the fight reopened
with renewed
vigor.
Copeland
declared
that no proposition could
be
made too hard for
him. Coperland was the man
who,
with a large force of deputies
had
been defeated by Christie two
weeks
previously, two of
his
men having
been shot down and the
others giving
away. During the
night the
moon was
out of sight on account of flying
clouds and taking
advantage of
the
darkness Copeland and
Smith made
a bold and
successful
advance on the
house and
succeded in gaining
cover
of a
wagon
that
stood in the yard twenty-two
feet
away from the house without being
discovered. They
hastily
constructed a barricade of rails the length of
the
wagon and were discovered just
as they completed the work,
but it
was proof
against Christie's bullets
and was a big
advance in the
direction of the
ultimate
success of the attacking
party. Captain White
and another of the
party got
under
the shelter of this
barricade and about four o'clock in
the
morning, while the
balance of
the
party rapidly fired into
the
house,
Copeland
took a
dynamite bomb
and
under this
fire went to the
house and put it
under the
building,
returning
safely.
This bomb
was composed
of six sticks of
dynamite with
three
fuses which were
lighted
before he
made the dash to
place
it
under the
house. By
the
time the the
officers had regained their
fortifications
the explosion
occurred. The
end of the house
was raised from its
foundation but
settled back again and stood
intact.
The explosion,
however, blew a
great hole in
the side of
the house and set the building
on
fire. Through this
opening
Christie and his men
opened
a vigorous fire on
the
deputies for
a few minutes and the
firing on both sides
was deafening
and it
is a miracle that none of the
marshal's force was
hit.
Christie about this
time espated
unseen and
when about
sixty yards
from the
house encountedred
about
four or five of the
marshals force. He fired
one
shot at them and
was at once riddled
with
bullets. This squad was composed of Ennis
Mills,
Wesley Itowman, David Rusk, Harry Clayland,
and John
Tolbert. By this time
the
house was wrapped in
flamers, and Ned Christie's
associates. Wolf and
Hare were still in the
house. The marshals seeing
Hare in the house by the
light
of
the burning building
called
upon him
to surrender, telling him
that he
would
not be hurt.
Knight, the Cherokee sheriff, called
upon him in his
own language, but he
heeded nothing
until
the house was
falling in
around
him.
Then he
began to scream and
leaped out through the flames,
being
fearfully burned
about the
face,
head, hand and back. Wolfe was supposed
at the time
to have burned up in the
building though it
afterwards
turned
out
that at the last moment he had made
his escape.
thus ending a period of
seven years of
outlawry and crime by
a man who had fought a greater number of
baales with the
officers of the
government than any other
outlaw
known to
civilization. This fight lasted over
twenty-four house and over four
thousand shots were
fired. On
examination it
was
found that Christie had
been
wounded
fifteen times while scarcely a marshal had
escaped without
the loss
of a lock of hair or a bullet
hole
through his clothes. The party left for
Fort
Smith with the body of Christie
and
the prisioner Charley
Hare. All
day the next
Sunday
crowds of people visited the federal
jail to view
the
remains of the dead outlaw who
lay in a
rough pine box just as he had been
picked up after
death.
At the
request of his father
Christie's body was
returned to the
Cherokee Nation for
burial and the
body
was laid away in
the
family burial ground. The
government had offered one thousand dollars for
his arrest
and although he was
killed in the arrest the government paid the
reward.
Wolfe was afterward
captured and he and Hare
were later
sent to
the penitentiary three
years
each for
resisting
arrest. Ned Christy was a
spendid specimen
of physical
humanity. He was a
well educated full blood
Cherokee
Indian and a gunsmith by
trade. His first
crime was
the
killing
of
Deputy Marshal Dan Maples of
Bentonville, Arkansas, near
Tahlequah. At
the time
it was
unknown who fire the
fatal shot. Several
arrests were made
and it soon
came
to light that
Christie was the murderer
of
Maples. A
reward of $500,
which was afterward
raised to $1,000 was offered, bgut he
successfully
resisted all attempts
to capture him and definantly remained at
home. His
house was burned
several times, but after
each
burning he
built
larger and stronger
ones. The
last one being a
fort. Among th
other
notable
efforts made to capute
Ned
Christie was in 1889 when Deputy Marshals Heck
Thomas and L.P. Lebell made a night raid on Ned Christie
at his home.
Isbell was
wounded in the shoulder and
rendered a cripple for
life. They
burned his home
and
wounded Christie between the eyes, but he
escaped.
Captain White says that he had hoped that
the killing of Christie would end the career of full blood
bandits in the
Cherokee nation and
he believed that this
career or warfare would never be
duplicated in the
Cherokee Nation
but it appears that the Wickliffe's have
proven to
be more desperate than the Christie
gang.
It is not
believed
that the Wickliffe bandits
will not be captured in a house, but that they will
meet
the officers in the brush and
fight it out with them. United States
Commissioner
Byron Kirkpatrick is the Marshal Darrough so
that if
arrests are
made the bandits will be given a
speedy hearing. In the hills and he sent
tojail at
Vinita. If they are
taken alive they will likely be tried before
Judge Luman
F. Parker Jr. at Vinita.
Source:
Daily
Oklahoman
Archived, printed March 18, 1906 page
11
Transcribed by Linda
Craig
Gilstrap, Isaac L. was commissioned in the Northern District of Indian Territory in July of 1902, serving under Marshal W. H. Darrough assigned as field deputy at Vinita, Cherokee Nation. In December of 1904, Ira Smith and Charley Morris, alias C. W. Lewis, two of a party of three charged with theft were captured this week by Gilstrap, one being apprehended at Waverly and the other at Litchfield, Illinois. It will be remembered that D. F. Youngkins, the other member of the gang was captured some time ago. All three were accused of burglary and receiving stolen property at Collinsville, Indian territory. The prisoners were placed in jail at Springfield, Illinois and will be brought back to the territory next week for preliminary trial. In March of 1906, Ike rode with fellow Deputy Marshals Otis Tittle and Dick Terry of Vinita, accompanied by Deputy Marshal Than Wofford, Andy Dick, Bob Thompson and Henry Holdeman, three deputies from Tahlequah. The lawmen’s mission was to capture the Wickliffe Gang who were charged with cattle rustling and the killing of Deputy Marshal John Henry Vier, on February 20, 1905. The Wickliffe gang made up of Charley, Tom and John Wickliffe, three Cherokee full-blooded Indians, along with several other tribesmen, took refuge in the Spavinaw Hills near Little Saline Creek, twenty-five miles southeast of Vinita. The three brothers were sons of the former justice of the Cherokee Supreme Court. Capturing the gang was a very difficult task due to the number of relatives and friends who had swore allegiance to them. Indian scouts posted themselves in tall trees to watch for the deputy marshals as they moved through the outlaws area. The hills, heavy brush and large boulders provided hiding and advantage points for ambush. The marshal’s force had spent several years trying to arrest Charley Wickliffe. Charley and several other young Cherokees were involved in stealing and selling horses to two white ranchers in the area. The two ranchers helped break up the horse stealing band by aiding the marshals forces in capturing the Cherokee Indians that took part in the thievery. One of the white ranchers that helped to make the capture turned up missing when his horse returned to his ranch with saddle and bridle. The long search for Charley Wickliffe created great hostility between the Wickliffe family and the marshal’s forces. The Cherokee outlaws swore that they would not be taken alive and displayed their hatred for the law when they lured the deputy marshals into ambush where larger forces waited to kill the officers. Gilstrap formed a posse of five lawmen who used bloodhounds to trail the gang. On March 11, 1906, after searching and trailing the gang for a month, the six lawmen traveled into a very hilly area where they confronted the three Wickliffe brothers. The bloodhounds gave pursuit until they overcame Tom Wickliff, who was large and fat, who succumbed when he could run no further. The other two brothers doubled back on the other side of the hill where they took cover waiting for the lawmen. Completely unaware that their assassins were lying in wait for them, the deputy marshals and posse rode directly into them. Here the lawmen met a barrage of bullets from the Wickliffe’s Winchesters. After the smoke cleared from the ambush, Deputy Marshal’s Gilstrap, Tittle and Carey lay motionless on the ground. Gilstrap lived long enough to eject one cartridge before being shot in the forehead. The officers horses were killed to prevent the lawmen from escaping if they survived the ambush. Than Wofford, Henry Holdeman, Andy Dick, and Bob Thompson survived the ordeal by retreating in a hail of bullets. Than Woodord’s mount was shot from beneath him which forced him to take cover. The battle area was near the site of Jim Wickliffe's home which set on the bank of Spavinaw Creek. Jim Wickliffe was an uncle to the three Wickliffe brothers. The surviving lawmen took cover in Jim Wickliffe’s home which provided protection from the gang. Several attempts were made by the survivors to recover the bodies of the dead deputy marshals. Every time a rescue effort was made to retrieve the dead men the gang opened fire. The gang returned to Gilstrap’s body like vultures to take his watch, about $30 in money, his six shooter, belt and cartridges. To further mutilate the officer’s body it was shot several times before they left. Wofford and the two Tahlequah deputies reported the incident to the Northern District Court, Marshal Darrough who was infuriated. Marshal Darrough immediately dispatched the deputy marshals and deputies from the Northern District. Within days a posse of one-hundred deputy marshals which included the whole Northern District were summoned to the murder scene. Marshal Darrough left his headquarters where he placed himself in charge of the forces. The reward was increased to one thousand dollars for each outlaw “Dead or Alive”. In June of 1906, Wickliffe gang members Ben Hungry, and Ned Carsalut, were arrested for harboring fugitives and for the murder of Deputy Gilstrap and Vier. Hungry and Carsalut were captured by John Smith and his full-blood Cherokee Nighthawks. Marshal Darroughs had hired them to capture the Wickliffe Gang because they were familiar with the Spavinaw Hill area. Hungry confessed that he had been with the gang when the killings occurred, then served as a scout after the battle. Hungry said John Wickliffe killed Gilstrap, robbed his body and was leader of the gang. The Wickliffe Gang talked with J. P. Thompson of Tahlequah trying to disprove any involvement in Deputy Marshal Vier and Gilstraps deaths, trying to place the blame on Ben Hungry. J.P. Thompson used the Indian newspapers to play down the Wickliffe’s activities in the killings. Oklahombres shows Gilstraps, Terry and Tittles death dates as March 12, 1906. Newspaper articles after Gilstraps death report Terry and Tittle were wounded and not killed in the ambush. (See Bennington Tribune article on this story dated June 14, 1906 also read Deputy Marshal Pleas Thompson and John Henry Vier for information leading to this incident.) Ike Gilstrap was born in 1861, was a large man weighing around two hundred fifty pounds and was buried in the Fairview cemetery at Vinita.
John Henry Vier, Deputy U.S. Marshal
U. S. Marshals
In 1903, Vier was appointed a Deputy
U.S. Marshal on the recommendation of Deputy U.S. Marshal Ike Gilstrap. Vier
hired Tom Dial as his posse and they worked together for the next year and a
half. They made numerous arrests and were considered an efficient team. At
approximately 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, February 21, 1905, the two lawmen arrived
at the log cabin of a man named Hogshooter to serve a warrant on a man believed
to be at the log cabin. Dial was left outside to watch for anyone trying to
escape while Vier entered the cabin. Vier arrested the man in the back
room of the cabin, and then walked with his prisoner into the hallway.
Unknown to Vier, two of the most dangerous outlaws in the Indian Territory, John
and Charlie Wickliffe, were hiding in the cabin. Before Vier had a chance
to draw his weapon, the Wickliffes opened fire hitting Vier and knocking him to
the floor. The Wickliffes then fled the cabin and seeing Dial, opened fire
on him. Dial returned fire and fifteen shots were fired back and forth until the
Wickliffes were able to run to into the woods. Dial entered the cabin and found
his partner on the floor. Several Marshals from Tahlequah were summoned
and upon their arrival found Vier deceased. The search began for the
Wickliffe brothers. The search continued for the next year until on March
12, 1906, the Wickliffes were located hiding at one of their uncle’s home.
During the arrest that followed Deputy U.S. Marshal Ike Gilstrap was killed and
Dick Terry wounded. Again the Wickliffes escaped. Two years later on March
29, 1908, Charlie Wickliffe was killed by his brother Tom during an argument.
Two months later Tom and John Wickliffe surrendered to the Cherokee County
Sheriff. Tom and John Wickliffe were tried and the jury returned a verdict
of not guilty, stating there was not enough evidence presented implicating
either defendant in the killing of John Henry Vier.