Volume 17 , Issue 1

Horse Thieves

Written by Judge T. H. Dyer, Jan. 31, 1933 -- This is another of Tom Dyer's articles, in which he reminisces about various horse thieving incidents that he was aware of in Oklahoma Territory.

Horse Thieves -- Horse thieves have become almost obsolete, but the time was when even the thoughts, or hearing the word "horse thieves" would send a chill coursing up and down one's spinal column.

The writer well remembers when, with his father, mother, brothers and sisters, we first settled in what is now Osage County, Okla., on the Big Cana (Caney) River , some five miles from the town of Elgin, Kansas, in April, 1870.

At that time there was in operation a gang of these light-fingered gentry who plied their trade along the border of Kansas and the Indian Territory, from southwest Missouri to Colorado. Their mode of operation was carried on systematically, in squads of two or more. Squad No. 1 stealing horses in Missouri, would travel the entire night to make connections with squad No. 2. Here an exchange of stolen animals would take place, and after a day of rest in some secluded rendevouz, the back track was taken very much after the fashion of the underground railroad in operation just prior to the Civil War.

Many Horses Stolen

Many a poor settler awakened in the morning to find that his team of horses or mules had mysteriously disappeared during the night. Perhaps his team was his all or main dependence for a living. Having come out west to secure a home for his wife and children, he had erected a house on the claim, breaking out a few acres preparatory to going back after his family that they might share with him the new home.

But, alas, their fond hopes were often blasted by horse thieves. Recovery of the stolen animals was out of the question.

Becoming disheartened, they would sell or trade the few effects left for something to aid them to return to their families in the east.

None Lost

We had quite a number of horses, and when not in actual use we kept close watch of them both day and night. At night, we always secured them with lock and chain, setting large posts in the ground with about four feet out of the ground. To these posts was bolted a large pole. On either side of this hitch rack, we called it, were grouped the animals. The chain used was the old-fashioned trace chain being looped around the pole and the other run up through the ring of the headstall, and then around the horse's neck and padlocked.

We never lost any stock by theft. However, the losses through out the country were quite frequent and numerous, until the settlers became so incensed over the depredations they formed vigilante committees whose business it was to look out for these fellows, and when caught, summary justice was meted out to them.

First Party

The first of these necktie parties near us included three Negro horse thieves. All were hanged on one limb near the town of Elgin, Kansas, about 1869.

A band of these thieves passed near where we lived on their way westward. Joe Vannoy, then a United States Marshal, learning of this, took up the trail and tracked them until they were located on Grouse Creek, in Cowley County, Kansas. He had with him his brother, Will Vannoy, and another man whose name I do not recall.

Approaching the camp early in the morning while the men were preparing breakfast, the officers demanded their surrender. The thieves replied with a volley of shots. Then three of their number dived for cover under the bank of the creek and reached their horses and escaped, while the other took refuge behind a large log on the ground.

Uses Log

Joe Vannoy also had taken advantage of a fallen tree. The thief was armed with a double-barrel shotgun while Vannoy had only his trusty .44 revolver.

While the thief was leveling his gun over the log to take a shot at Vannoy, the marshal wounded his man in the shoulder. The thief's gun fell from his grasp, but not until he had discharged both barrels, the muzzle of his gun had been lowered, however, so the shot entered the log behind which Vannoy had taken refuge.

Being wounded and his gun out of reach, the fellow surrendered. Search was made for his comrades but they had escaped. After administering first aid to his prisoner, Vannoy and the posse started on their return trip to Elgin, but not until he had extracted the bullet from the log as a souvenir of his escape.

It was about 40 miles to Elgin from where the capture was made. Vannoy and his prisoner were on horseback and he intended to reach his destination just after nightfall. All went well until they were about one and a half miles from Elgin when he was halted by a band of vigilantes who demanded the prisoner be given over to them. It being dark, and Vannoy seemingly powerless to resist, acceded to their demands, and he was told to ride on, while the vigilantes were making preparations for the hanging.

There had been a cyclone through that country some time prior to this happening, and a large redoak tree had been blown down. It was twisted off some 15 feet above the ground, and the top was lying on the ground while the trunk remained hanging to the high stump. On this leaning tree they hanged their man.

In their haste to complete the job and get away, they had overlooked a small hickory sapling growing nearby. A number of citizens going next morning to cut down the body, found that the fellow had not expired as readily as the vigilantes had anticipated, but in his struggles he had got hold of this sapling, and had he not been wounded he would have freed himself and made his escape.

His grave was dug beneath the spot where he was hanging and the body lowered to its last resting place. A large headboard was erected and placed at the head, on which was written in large black letters an inscription, and though 60 years have intervened, this epitaph was so indelibly imprinted on my memory that I can repeat it word for word.

Often my older brother, Oscar, and I were sent to the mill by our parents, sometimes with a team and other times we drove a yoke of oxen. The mill to which we took our grist of wheat or corn, some times both, was known as Hart's mill and was situated on the Cana River, some 12 miles up the river from Elgin. The road we had to travel to and from this mill went directly by the place where this man died. If the mill was crowded, as was often the case, sometimes we were belated on our return trip, and we had to pass by this place after nightfall.

Though I cannot plead guilty to being cowardly, I must confess that a rather uncanny feeling would creep over us while passing this spot in the dark.

Some eight or nine years ago I met the late Beecher Crawford, who lived some five miles east of Alva. Beecher had lived in Elk County, Kansas. He had heard of and perhaps had seen this inscription. He said to me, "Tom, what was that inscription on the grave of that horse-thief hung in the early days just west of Elgin?"

I at once quoted the words to him verbatim, and this is what they were: "This individual came to his death by falling into the hands of people who have an abhorrence for horse-thieves and murderers."

Directly beneath this was a picture of a skull and crossbones used by pharmacists on labels of bottles containing various chemical compounds. It signifies "poison."Perhaps this is what it stood for in this case, or perhaps it signified "death to evildoers."

A Second Hanging

Another hanging that I well remember happened about five miles from where we lived. It was on the road leading to the town of Peru, Kansas. A gang of horse thieves were operating in that vicinity, and being closely pursued by the vigilantes, they met a boy perhaps 15 or 16 years old, traveling on foot. The thieves hired the boy to take the horses to a designated place. They furnished him horse and saddle to ride, while he led the others, the thieves taking to the wooded hills and canyons. The boy was soon overtaken by the vigilantes.

He told his story as to how he happened to be in possession of the horses, but plead as he might the horses were in his possession, which to these men was proof of his guilt. He was taken a short distance from the roadside and hanged, still protesting his innocence.

Here, I have always believed, was an instance where an innocent boy paid the penalty for a crime of which he was nowise guilty. Nothing was ever known as to who he was or where he was from. However, he was somebody's boy, and perhaps a lonely mother passed anxious days and sleepless nights awaiting his return.

This tragedy was enacted on a place belonging to a man by the name of Ned Spurlock. The grave was at the head of a small creek that left off towards the southeast and was a tributary of Hickory Creek. In the summer of 1904, with my family I made a visit to Chautauqua County to visit my brother, John Dyer, and family, who were keeping a boarding house in the oil fields on what was known as the Spurlock Lease. While visiting there I went one day to try to locate the place where the boy had been buried, and although it was near the same roadside, on the same old road that was there at that time, I was unable to find any trace of it. The contour of the ground was much the same. Fire had been kept out of the timber until only large trees grew, and smaller trees and underbrush had entirely obliterated all signs of the place which I thought could be readily located, proof that Old Father Time changes all things.

Another hanging in the extreme southwest corner of what is now Elk County, Kansas, but at the time of which I write was Howard County, another of these hangings took place. It was at the bottom of a deep canyon, surrounded by rugged walls of stone and underbrush. Some trees grew in the bottom of this canyon, the sides of which were almost devoid of trails for ingress or egress, yet the place was probably used as a hiding place for horse thieves. Suffice to say, a man was hanged at this place on one of the trees which grew in the bottom of this canyon.

A ranch house was located some miles from here. One morning a strange horse came to this ranch with saddle and bridle on, the bridle reins dragging the ground. Realizing something must have happened, the men at the ranch instituted a search which resulted in finding the man's body hanging on one of the trees.

He had been dead for several days. No one seemed to know anything as to who he might have been or where he was from. He was buried beneath the tree on which he was found. This was in the early '70s, and yet at this date, January, 1933, the place bears the name given it at that time. It is called "Dead Man's Gulch." It was a beautiful and picturesque place, carved by the hand of nature.

I have no doubt that long since this the place was made into a pleasure resort where tourists, lovers of natural scenery, pleasure seekers, and even the curiosity seekers make pilgrimages for rest, recreation, and sight-seeing.

The border counties of Labette, Montgomery and Howard (now Chautauqua) and Elk, Cowley and Sumner were infested with bands of horse thieves during the early '70s, even extending into the early '80s. Often perhaps a friendly neighbor furnished a hangout for these marauding bands of robbers.

Frequent hangings took place near Wellington, Oxford and Caldwell until the climate did not exactly agree with the health of these individuals and they sought more congenial regions; and even the neighbor, their accomplice, was invited to vacate, amose, move on, and usually one invitation was sufficient.

They did their vacating more often than not between two days, that is, between dark and daylight.

While the horse thief has practically been put out of business, we now have in their stead, the hijacker, auto thief, bank robber. These fellows make the old-time horse thief look like 30 cents in comparison. Why this change? There is some underlying, unexplained cause for existing conditions, for they do not apply to any one community or state. It is prevalent throughout the country. A great problem. What is its solution?

In the first part of my story, I said the words "horse thieves" had become obsolete, but I have only recently read in the papers where a man had been sentenced to the penitentiary for life by a judge in the staid old town of Boston for stealing a horse.

I also read of another case of horse stealing which happened near Ponca City, and still another in Oklahoma City, where a mere boy had not only stolen the horse, but the wagon to which it was hitched. The boy was using the horse and wagon to earn some needed money by hauling wherever he could get a job of work. The property was restored to the owner and the boy was not prosecuted.

Down near Duncan I read an article where two boys had purloined a couple of horses. They were soon recovered.

The last case to come to my notice was where a fellow in Pontotoc County had stolen three head of horses trying to make a getaway, but near the old town of Stonewall, he had evidently changed his mind, and had started to return the horses to their owner. The officers met him in the road while on his return trip. Seeing the officers and most likely knowing them, he at once abandoned the horses and made good his escape.
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