1860
_(14770606281).jpg)
Map of the unorganized territory, 1860
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory_in_the_American_Civil_War)
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." (Oklahoma Outlaws Thrived Before Statehood, Sunday March 4th 2007, News On 6).
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 (https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=UN001).
1889
Map of Unassigned Lands (Oklahoma) - 1885 Source: https://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/federal_indian_policy/federal_indian_policy.html, federal government site, public domain
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 (https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entryname=INDIAN%20TERRITORY).
1890
Rand Mcnally And Company. (1892) Map of the Indian and Oklahoma territories. [S.l] [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/98687110/.
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.
1893
The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight and it set the stage for Oklahoma to become the 46th state in the Union ("The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2006)).
1907
"On September 17, 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 on December 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."
National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/oklahoma
1909
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/299964/content/arcmedia/media/images/28/21/28-2049a.jpg
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, (Oklahoma Outlaws Thrived Before Statehood, Sunday, March 4th, 2007. By: News on 6), 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.
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.
1901-1908
Drummond Main Street looking North around 1908. Photo provided by Fred and Dovie Kaupke.
The first event captured in newspaper was the Tenningkeit murder. This murder was committed in 1905 and was written about in The Drummond Herald. This horrible murder was also discussed in an oral history provided by Charlie Metz.
1905
(Drummond Herald, November 3, 1905).
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.
1905
(Drummond Herald, December 7, 1905).
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 (The Messenger, June 3, 1909). 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.
1908
(The Drummond Messenger, Dec. 24, 1908, pg. 1).
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.
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.
1910, August 25 Theft at Allen’s Store.
1910
(The Drummond Messenger, August 25, 1910).
1911, August 31 Frisco Depot Break In:
1911
(The Drummond Messenger, August 31, 1911).
1912 July 18 Frisco Depot Break In:
1912
(The Drummond Messenger, July 18, 1912).
In the July 18, 1912 edition of The Drummond Messenger, Chicken thieves were reported:
1912
The “hotel De Hume” is the county jail. Hume was the Sheriff at this time.
Again, in the August 1, 1912 edition of The Drummond Messenger:
1912
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.
1912
(The Enid Events (Enid, Oklahoma) · 31 Oct 1912).
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.
1913
Another Frisco Depot Robbery occurred in 1915. The thief was looking for something very specific.
1915
(The Drummond Messenger, June 24, 1915).
In October 1916, another theft was reported. However, this theft was different in that the thieves were suspected of also shooting Billy Bassett’s bird dog.
1916
(Drummond Messenger Oct 19, 1916).
Figure 1 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.
1917
(The Drummond Times, 1924, July 18).
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.
1926
(The Drummond Times, March 26, 1926).
1932
(The Enid Events, January 21, 1932).
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. 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.
1933
(The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=FL004).
1933
(The Enid Events, September 07, 1933).
1933
(The Enid Events, 1933, September 14).
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.
1933
En.wikipedia.org
Garfield County family had to deal with the gang of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker
By Joe Cummings | For the News & Eagle, Dec 31, 2017
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 My Existence” 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 the Bonnie and Clyde Barrow Gang.”
Armed with a shotgun, Bonnie Parker reaches for a pistol in companion Clyde Barrow's waistband.
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.
Letter provides a clue
The Enid Morning News article of Sept. 5, 1933, stated “in the abandoned auto also was an unsealed letter addressed to Harvey Bailey.” Although unsigned, it was speculated to be written by Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd.
On July 22, 1933, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Albert L. Bates and Harvey Bailey orchestrated the kidnapping of Oklahoma oil tycoon Charles F. Urschel for a ransom of $200,000. The article in the Sept. 6, 1933, Enid Morning News stated Bailey and Bates were to stand trial in Oklahoma City for the kidnapping. Kelly was still being sought.
Bailey was called “The Dean of American Bank Robbers.” He allegedly robbed the Denver Mint, he got $2.7 million from the Lincoln National Bank of Lincoln, Neb., “the largest on record” according to the Niagara Falls Gazette, Sept. 14-15,1933.
In The Enid Morning News of Sept. 5, 1933, Bailey had described Pretty Boy as a “‘small fry’ in banditry.”
“You’ve talked yourself into the joint,” the letter read. “Now … you’re talking about Pretty Boy, and it may be if you talk fast enough, you’ll miss the chair. … It has always been mysterious to me why they didn’t design tough guys like you to catch me. … It is no object to steal a harmless man.
“I may be a ‘smalltime hister’ and you the brains of money, a $200,000 plot, still I’m outside enjoying the few dollars I make while you are wracking your enormous brain trying to beat the chair.”
‘Get my car!’
However, the real story began at the south end of Buchanan Street in Enid on Labor Day, Sept. 4, 1933. At 11:15 a.m., the Enid Police Department received a call from an attendant named Freeman Scarlett at the filling station at the south end of Buchanan Street. He said a “heavily armed” group of four people had stopped and “asked him for a Kansas road map.”
He believed them to be “Machine Gun” Kelly and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. According to The Enid Morning News article of Sept. 5, 1933, Police Chief John W. Burns and Deputy Sheriff Elmer Hutchinson answered the call. (Ruth Ann Sailors said her dad, David K. Brown, who owned and operated Enid Implement Co., was picked up by Deputy Sheriff Hutchinson — they were friends and hunting buddies — and was present at the following events.)
The authorities reportedly started west on Maine when they saw a four-door Ford V8 bearing Texas plates. The car cut through a filing station at Madison and Maine, then went west. They gave chase. As they neared the 900 block, occupants of the Ford began firing a machine gun.
“They raced on to Buchanan, turned south to Lahoma road and went west, with officers close behind,” according to The Enid Morning News. “They turned south, east of Drummond highway, but came back to the gravel about 3 miles north of Drummond, then turned south. At the north edge of Drummond, they turned west, going about a mile and a half onto the Drummond Flats” where the car became stuck in the mud.
This Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation map shows the Drummond Flats Wildlife Management Area covering 4,653 acres in western Garfield County. Located west of the town of Drummond, or approximately 8 miles southwest of Enid, Drummond Flats is a historic overflow basin at the confluence of Turkey Creek, Elm Creek and Salt Creek. It predominately is wetland habitat with some surrounding upland habitat.
Hutchinson had left Burns at Drummond to call for help, but he was right behind the Ford. About 50 shots were fired at him from the fugitives’ car. All he had was a pistol, so he went back to Drummond to get a high-powered gun and help.
In the air, Harold Kindred piloted a plane which George Davis and Malley Smith, armed with rifles, reportedly “flew over the scene and fired shots” into the Ford.
However, the gang had already left the car and were at the Kline Farm and then to take Perry Nance’s car. Hutchinson picked up former peace officer Charles Allen and went back. A Model A was coming out of a farm driveway, and Perry Nance was yelling at them, “Get my car!”
They gave chase through Meno, both groups firing at each other as they went. Hutchinson lost them at Ringwood.
Sailors said her father told her they went back to the car stuck in the mud. When the gangster fired at them from the car, the machine gun jammed and he beat it with a Colt 45 trying to fix it. On the floor of the car was the Colt 45, which was engraved as U.S. Property and a model 1911 U.S. Army with scratches on it from the beating. It was one of the ones stolen from the Enid Armory on July 7, 1933. The crook had hit the machine gun so hard that the Colt broke into pieces. Sheriff Hutchinson handed the gun pieces and a pair of ladies red high heel shoes from the car to David and told him he could keep them. David had a gunsmith put the Colt back together.
Ruth Ann still has pictures of that gun given to her by her father.
By 1940, Oklahoma’s outlaw era was passing into history (Oklahoma Outlaws Thrived Before Statehood, Sunday March 4th 2007, News On 6).
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.
1953
Article provided by Etta (Miller) Minton.
(The Enid Daily Eagle August 7, 1953).
1953
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.
1967
Article provided by Laura Horrall.
(The Enid Daily Eagle, March 9, 1967).
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.
1906
