AR-SAWMILLS-L Archives

From: "Diana Boothe" <>
Subject: Fw: US Marshalls history project
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 09:20:47 -0500

Forwarded with permission......thanks, Suzy!
Take care,
Diana
List Admin
----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 8:57 PM
Subject: [ARSebast] US Marshalls history project


by Pam Cloud

Much of the history of the US Marshals Service was lived in this border town
at the turn of the 20th century. A lone lawman riding off on horseback to
apprehend outlaws is branded in the minds of many as the way the West was
tamed.
Today, with many of the men and women who made that history buried in local
cemeteries, efforts are being made to collect information from area
residents
about deputy marshals, jailers and posse members. That information,
according to
Richard J. O’Connell, US Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, will
be
used to try to convince officials with the US Marshals Service that Fort
Smith is the perfect location for its new national US Marshals Service
Museum. At
a special open house slated for May 1, descendants of former US Marshal
Service employees are asked to bring artifacts, photographs or documents and
the
colorful stories handed down from several generations to help catalog the
information. Amy Wilcox of Fort Smith plans to be there to share the
interesting
stories of her great-grandfather, Calvin “Cal” Whitson, who served as a
deputy US
Marshal for Judge Isaac C. Parker in the late 1800s.
Whitson was sort of a crusty character, Wilcox said, with one eye shot out,
and he always wore his hat down over the left eye to hide the wound. Its
been
said that the character of patch-eyed Marshal Rooster Cogburn was modeled
after
Whitson, Wilcox added. “My great-grandfather’s personality was very much
like Rooster Cogburn,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox said she remembers her aunts and other family members telling stories
handed down by her grandmother, Vannie Valeria Whitson Evans, who was
Whitson’
s daughter.
“When she was a little girl, she remembered him bringing some prisoners in
after being out for a long time,” Wilcox explained. “If he was tired and
hungry, he would go straight to his house, and he would chain the outlaws to
the
bedpost to keep an eye on them before he took them on to jail.” In the
Whitson
family research, Wilcox said, it was discovered that Cal Whitson’s
first-born
son, 16-year-old Billy, apparently signed up as a posse member July 7, 1888,
went out with a deputy marshal to pick up prisoners near Eufaula in Indian
Territory and never made it home. “He was killed the first night he went out
by a
Creek Indian,” Wilcox said. “We wonder if that had anything to do with (Cal
Whitson’s) interest in becoming a deputy marshal, to avenge his son’s death.
“I
think that’s so sad that Billy went out and got shot,” she added. Buddy
Berry
of Alma said “we’d have to lose both bridges” to keep him away from the
excitement of Descendant’s Day festivities. Berry’s great-grandfather, James
Cole, served as a deputy marshal sometime in the late 1800s to early 1900s,
according to Berry. Cole was born in 1855 and died in 1925. Like Wilcox,
Berry also
recalls stories told by his grandfather of his great-grandfather chasing
outlaws. “He got his mustache shot off in the Moffett bottoms,” Berry said.
“That
was the story my granddad told me.” Berry said Cole lived in McCurtain in
Indian Territory and also would bring prisoners home often after
apprehending
them. “I remember my granddad telling me he’d have prisoners with him, and
his
mother would cook and feed them before they came to Fort Smith to be hung,”
Berry said. Berry also said family folklore indicates that Cole Younger of
the
Younger gang of outlaws was named after Berry’s great-grandfather. The idea
of
gathering descendants of former marshal service employees intrigues Berry.
“I
just know the things I know from my granddad,” he said. “It’s too
interesting.
It’s fascinating the way things were then.” Berry isn't the only one excited
about the upcoming event. Bill Black, superintendent of the Fort Smith
National Historic Site, said his staff, members of the steering committee
organized
to help bring the national US Marshals Museum to Fort Smith along with
Marshals
Service officials in Washington, DC, are looking forward to this
one-of-a-kind event. With more than 170 marshal service employees buried in
Fort Smith,
organizers think there are many residents in the area with familial links to
former marshals, deputy marshals and posse members with interesting stories
to
share or photographs and artifacts to copy. O’Connell said it’s important
for
people to remember the committee is not just looking for descendants of
marshals who rode in Parker’s days; they are also interested in hearing from
descendants of later marshal service employees. Volunteers at the open house
will help
with collecting, copying and cataloguing the information and recording oral
histories. Black said park rangers are hoping to see some photographs and
artifacts relating to marshals and deputy marshals they have never seen
before. “It
serves the purpose of this park in that there are two or three pictures out
there we would love to have,” Black said, noting they do not have an
interior
shot of Parker’s courtroom, nor do they have a photograph of the gallows. “
There were cameras back in those days, and we feel like they're out there in
somebody's attic or scrapbook,” Black said. “Its … one day to bring together
people and motivate them to go out there and look for this stuff and bring
it in
if they've got it.”

This thread:

• Fw: US Marshalls history project by "Diana Boothe" <>