Volume 16 , Issue 5

1893, Gang of Drunken Desperadoes Visit Enid (OK)

n 10 November 1893, The Guthrie Daily Leader, reported that a gang of drunken desperadoes visited the town of Enid, Oklahoma Territory, and terrorized women and children and drove them from their claims. And there was almost a lynching that was swiftly aborted.

As the newspaper reported, the town of Enid, in the cherokee strip, was furnishing its quota of sensations and it was a poor day there when something does not occur to vary the monotony. A riot and probable lynching was checked in its incipiency one afternoon when a gang of desperadoes from South Enid, led by Mike Sterling, Bob Iles, Sam Wood, Tom Fisher and George Gallagher, rode into town with drawn revolvers. They proceeded to the Cherokee allotments on the east side of the track and jumped the land. Houses were torn down and women and children terrorized. Mrs. Darragh, owner of the City Hotel, was driven from her place and the desperadoes took possession.

The citizens turned out and held the outlaws in check until the sheriff and a posse could be summoned when the entire gang was arrested and taken to the county jail. A wholesale lynching was narrowly averted on the night of 9 November 1893 and it was not improbable that one would occur.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---