In 1834 Congress passed an act that created what was known as Indian Territory which included what became the State of Oklahoma.  Although it was referred to as “Indian Territory” in actuality, it never was organized under the territorial guidelines. The region never had a formal government, and it remained unorganized.

Consequently, Indian Territory became a haven for outlaws including cattle rustlers, horse thieves, whiskey peddlers and bandits from neighboring states. The Territory was free of "white man's court."

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After the Civil War, Creek and Seminole Indians lost land in the heart of what is now Oklahoma.  The lands that went back to the Federal Government became known as The Unassigned Lands.  In 1889, the Unassigned Lands were open for settlement.  This was the first of four land runs in Oklahoma.

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In May 1890, Oklahoma Territory was created after Native Americans were driven further south through a series of legislative acts.  The map indicates the boundary between Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory.  Oklahoma Territory did set up a three-part government with appointed executive and judicial branches and elected legislative branch.  However, the federal government had ultimate authority over territorial affairs.

The Land Run of 1893 opened the Cherokee Outlet to settlement. This was the fourth and largest land run with an estimated 100,000 participants vying to claim one of only 42,000 parcels of land. This was the land run from which the town of Drummond would begin.  Within this run, as with the other three runs, were the infamous “Sooners”. Sooners snuck into the land claim area before the race began. They were looked down upon by other settlers because they often claimed the best land and they did so unlawfully.

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The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight and it set the stage for Oklahoma to become the 46^th state in the Union.

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“On September17, 1907 the people of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories voted favorably on statehood. The vote was certified and delivered to the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt and on November 16, 1907, Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 780 admitting Oklahoma as the forty-sixth state.  President Roosevelt announced to Congress in his annual message onDecember 3, 1907, "Oklahoma has become a state, standing on full equity with her elder sisters, and her future is assured by her great natural resources.”

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Considering that the Land Run was fraught with disputes from the beginning and because it is estimated that there were nearly 200 outlaws in Oklahoma between the end of the Civil War and the late 1930’s, Drummond developed without much violence or lawlessness.  This exhibit will detail the petty mischief that the town encountered as well as a few more harrowing events.  The newspapers at the time chronicled these events.

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In July, 1901 the town of Drummond had received a postal designation as a town in Oklahoma Territory.  

By 1908, a year after Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory became the state of Oklahoma, Drummond was a thriving town.

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The discovery of a skeleton by the Imo Church was covered in the December 7, 1905 edition of The Drummond Herald.  Even though there were no signs of foul play no cause of death was ever determined.  The body was determined to be that of J.B. Wamsley.

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The newspapers at the time were covering thefts across the state.  Horse and cattle thieves were causing quite a bit of commotion.  In 1908 The Drummond Messenger reported that there was an Anti-Horse Thief Association.  By 1909, a new Oklahoma Law was enacted that resulted in a payment of $50.00 for arrest and conviction of horse and mule thieves. While no cattle or horse thefts were reported in Drummond, it was clear that there were some petty thieves at work in Drummond at this time.  

This may be an indication that the writer thought either that it might be someone associated with the Campbell Circus, which wintered in the Drummond Flats.  Or, another interpretation might be that if caught, the thief would be sent to live with members of the Campbell Circus.

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By 1910, thieves were breaking into stores and the train depot.  The break in at S.T. Allen’s General Store was reported along with a threat.

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The “hotel De Hume” is the county jail.  Hume was the Sheriff at this time.

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Horse and Cattle theft continued to be an issue in Garfield County.  In October 1912, a Garfield County sheriff used his record on capturing horse thieves for his campaign for reelection.  

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Even though Sheriff Hume campaigned on his record of apprehending thieves, not everyone was convinced that his record was as accurate as he let on. This can be seen in the next article found in The Enid Events April 17, 1913 edition.

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Another Frisco Depot Robbery occurred in 1915.  The thief was looking for something very specific.

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In October 1916, another theft was reported.  However, this theft was different in that the thieves were suspected of also shooting BillyBassett’s bird dog.

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Billy Bassett with dog in front of pharmacy.

In 1917, theft was starting to include cars.  On September 6, 1917 the State Highway Department issued warnings for auto theft. By 1924 Drummond and surrounding areas were dealing with thieves stealing car parts as well as cars.

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In March of 1926 and then again in January 1932, both the Frisco Depot and the S.T. Allen and Rikli Mercantile Co. stores were broken into.

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Then in September 1933, Bonnie and Clyde, two notorious outlaws, were mistaken for Pretty Boy Floyd’s Gang when they got stuck in the Drummond Flats and stole a car from Perry Nance.

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The first two articles report the chase and the subsequent arrest of one of the bandits.  This is the gangster they thought they were pursuing.

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As it turns out, the gangsters who were stuck in the Drummond flats and who stole Perry Nance’s car were Bonnie and Clyde.  Kenneth Rodenberg wrote about the event from his memory. The event was also recorded in Raymond Cline’s 2002 book Sketches of My Existence pg. 106-110.  The following newspaper account was written by Joe cummings for the News and Eagle in Dec.,2017.

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Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 4, 1933, was a good day for the Charles A. Kline Family (“Charlie”; wife Emma; sons Raymond, 17, Arvis, 14, Kenneth, 12, and Billy, 4) as they sat down to eat their evening meal on a farm northwest of Drummond. According to The Enid Morning News article of Sept. 5, 1933, and “Sketches of MyExistence” book by Raymond Kline, their world suddenly changed with a knocking at their door. Charlie and Emma both went to answer it to a man holding a machine gun.“We need a butcher knife!” he hollered as he barged in carrying a woman with his party.Charlie got the butcher knife as the man told him to use it to remove a shell stuck in the machine gun. The man asked about a phone, which they didn’t have.“Now, woman, I want you to wash and scrub this(lady’s) legs where she has all this mud on her,” the man told Emma. “When you get to the wound, find something to stop the bleeding and dress the wound real good.” The butcher knife didn’t work, so Charlie said he had a vice and rods in his shop that would take the stuck shell out.“OK, Bud,” the man said. “You carry the machine gun.… Don’t try any foolishment, or this pistol will be emptied of its bullets. ”Afterwards, Charlie said “that opening in that gun barrel looked as big as a silver dollar. … I was shaking like a leaf in the wind.”Somehow, Charlie dislodged the shell. The man asked for their car, which had two flats and the engine didn’t work, so Charlie told him Perry Nance, their neighbor to the west, had one. The man took the machine gun and left. Emma was “having problems with the woman,” according to the Kline book. She had fallen face down in the mud several times, and the bullet wound was bleeding much faster. The lady would scream each time Emma got close to the wound. She finally cleaned and “put some Mentholatum on the wounds,” dressing them with “strips of cloth from flour sacks, then wrapped her whole leg with strips cut from feed sacks.”The man returned with a car. As they loaded up and headed off west, the undersheriff reportedly “took several shots at them, but this did not deter them. … They knocked out the back window of the car, stuck the machine gun through it and gave the undersheriff a few warning shots,”according to the book. Arvis and Kenneth reportedly went to the mud flats west of Drummond and “came upon this new 1932 Ford V8 car with all of its doors open, stuck solid in the mud.” Footprints led back directly to their house.“Inside the vehicle were guns laying on the floor and a jar of small change,” Kline wrote.“ … My folks were dealing with theBonnie and Clyde Barrow Gang.”

The car stuck in the mud was Clyde’s favorite, a woman with the gang, arsenal in car which they usually had — it all seemed to fit. Others thought it was Pretty Boy Floyd.

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By 1940, Oklahoma’s outlaw era was passing into history.

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The next big event occurred in 1953 when five men made the first ever attempt to rob the bank of Drummond at 2:07 a.m. Mrs. W.C. “Chet” Lovely heard a noise she thought came from the bank.  She alerted her husband who then called the sheriff.    

A cut-out article found in the Museum files indicated that the get away car was found abandoned at Bartlesville.  However, the newspaper and the contributor were not attached to the article to provide the reference information.

It is not known if anyone was ever apprehended for this robbery attempt.

Another early morning bank robbery attempt occurred in March 1967 when the robbers attempted to enter the bank through two small windows in the front of the building.

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It is not known if anyone was ever apprehended for this attempted robbery either.

Considering the difficulties of the 1930’s, the Town of Drummond remained a safe community with relatively few robberies, thefts and murders.  The Bonnie and Clyde encounter as well as the two attempted bank robberies were as uncommon as they were fantastic. The advertisement about the Town of Drummond found in the March 22, 1906 edition of the Drummond Herald, highlighting the endless opportunities of the new town, captures the optimism of the people of Drummond.  Even though every family experienced hardship of one kind or another, the spirit of the townspeople remained strong and steadfast.

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