William H. Evans. If
there existed any imaginary boundary line between thievery and
outlawry in Oklahoma’s wild west days, a little band of men known as
the Swafford Gang almost obliterated it, for their operations over
the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Pottawatomie and Seminole nations were marked
by daring raids, holdups and probably murder. This was said to be the
most daring little band of thieves that ever existed in the West, and
their activities had been at white heat for about three years until
one of their number was killed and two others captured on Delaware
Creek, near Bromide, May 29, 1899. William H. Evans, then a posseman
under Deputy United States Marshal J. H. Bridges at Tishomingo, led a
party of officers in pursuit of the Swaffords, overtaking them on
Delaware Creek, and the result of a running fight was the complete
breaking up of the band.
The nagging of Evans
at the heels of this band for weeks is important in a chronicle of
the events of those stirring days. Evans had come up from Texas at
the age of twenty-one and settled on a farm near Emmet, owned by
Douglas H. Johnston, now governor of the Chickasaw Nation, and later
establishing a ranch seven miles north of Tishomingo for Treadwell &
Lucas. Thievery was rampant, and had been for years. The country was
then being settled by respectable white people, and as communities
grew the necessity for the elimination of the thieves became more
apparent. It was this necessity that enticed Evans from a peaceful
farm life to the exciting forefront of the law-enforcement life. He
therefore hounded and made life generally miserable for
law breakers. For a night and day he and
his men had been on the trail of the Swafford band when they overtook
them in a log house on Delaware Creek. Upon the approach of the
officers the band mounted and fled into the timber, firing as they
went. The officers returned the fire, killing Charles Hailey, a
leader of the gang. This broke the organization, and Thomas Hailey
and John Finley were captured. Arthur Swafford, eldest of the trio of
that name, was wounded, but escaped. A year later he, in company with
a noted outlaw, one Bert Casey, was killed by a sheriff of
Pottawatomie County on the Canadian River, near Johnsonville. Walter
and Oscar Swafford later were arrested and convicted, and thus ended
the depredations of this band of outlaws.
Another event of the
life of Mr. Evans illustrates the character of what was commonly
accepted as justice in the early days of the Chickasaw Nation. A man
known as “One-Eyed Ward,” who lived near Madill, killed a
man named Harkey at Oakland. Evans, who at that time was serving as a
deputy under United States Marshal Ben H. Colbert, arrested Ward and
confined - him in the United States prison at Tishomingo. A few weeks
later Ward announced his intention of making bond. Feeling was high
against him and Evans advised him to remain in jail, saying he was
sure to be assassinated. However, Ward was obdurate, and he made
bond, returning to Madill. Three days later in the afternoon, while
he was driving toward Oakland with R. J. Toppey, both men were shot
from ambush and killed. Although an effort was made to locate the
assassins, it was unsuccessful, and many pioneers in this section
looked placidly upon the matter, in quiet intimation that the score
was settled.
During his career as
a United States officer Mr. Evans picked up the bodies of thirteen
dead men, but he saw only three killed. He made twenty-six arrests
for murder in four years. He recovered stolen horses over a territory
extending as far north as Henryetta and as far south as Lindale,
Texas, a distance of 200 miles from his headquarters, failing to
recover only one stolen horse. At that time his duties were more than
those of a county sheriff and all his deputies today.
Mr. Evans was born
in Surry County, North Carolina, in 1872, and is a son of Thomas and
Mary (Sparker) Evans. His father, who was a blacksmith, made wagons
and shod mules for Confederate soldiers at Hillsville, Virginia,
during the Civil war, returning after the war to North Carolina where
he remained until 1885 and then moved to Fannin County, Texas. He
died there at the age of seventy-seven, and his widow still lives at
the age of eighty-two. She weighs 172 pounds, the identical weight
she bore at the age of eighteen.
There are eighty-two
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the Evans family.
Mr. Evans began life
as a farmer boy and attended the common schools of North Carolina and
Texas. When he was twenty-one he came to the Indian Territory, where
he did farm and ranch work until he entered official life. He served
as an officer under Deputy United States Marshal J. H. Bridges,
United States Marshal Ben H. Colbert and United States Marshal G. A.
Porter. He settled in Madill in 1902, and a few years later entered
the livery business. In 1907 he ran for sheriff of Marshall County on
the democratic ticket, and was defeated for the nomination by 176
votes. A year later he was appointed special agent to Attorney
General Charles West, and still later he served fourteen months in
the secret service department in Oklahoma City, under Mayor Henry M.
Scales. In 1911 he entered the real estate and farm loan business in
Madill.
Mr. Evans was
married March 27, 1901, to Miss Mary C. Raper, a niece of Marcus
Raper, founder of the Town of San Marcos,
Texas. They have four children, Irene, Douglas H., Murlin and
Raymond. Mr. Evans has four brothers and two sisters. Mrs. J. N.
Evans of Denison, Texas, is the wife of an engineer who has been in
the service of the Katy Railroad for twenty years. Mrs. T. H. Benton
is the wife of a farmer at Madill. James
W. Evans is a retired claim agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company,
whose service continued over a period of twenty-six years. T. E.
Evans is a farmer at Chillicothe, Texas. G. W. Evans is a farmer at
El Centro, California. M. W. Evans is a real estate dealer at Lake
Arthur, New Mexico.
Mr. Evans is a
member of the Methodist Church, and his fraternal connections’ are
with the Masonic order. He is a member of the Madill Board of
Education, the Madill Commercial Club, the Madill United Charities
Association, and the Madill Good Roads Club, all of which have a
generous share in his attention. The family home is in Madill.