Does anyone have any idea who thish deputy marshal would have been? I could not find a mention of the identity of the deputy in the papers preceding this date and following it.

Cherokee Advocate, October 14, 1871, pg. 2
A Black Deputy Marshall[sic] was killed, we learn, on the beach of the Arkansas River opposite Fort Smith. The particulars are we understand these: A Cherokee youth named Tom Ross against whom there was no charge pending before the United States Court was assaulted by the Deputy and personally maltreated and his weapons taken away by force. The colored Deputy then told Ross he would have a further settlement next day. Ross replied that so far as he was concerned, he did not like to wait so long, and immediately mounted his horse and rode off. In a short time he was seen coming back armed with a double-barreled shot gun, which the colored Deputy observing he started for the river where there was a skift in waiting, muttering something as he went, in a tone too low to be understood. He had got down the bank and on the beach when young Ross rode up, dismounted, and fired both barrels of the gun one after the other, at the retiring black man, hitting him both times and killing him instantly. Ross then rode off and was seen no more. There were several Deputy Marshals on this side, in the “Bottom” next morning looking for him, but at last accounts had not succeeded in finding him; and any hopes that he did not consider the affair of sufficient consequence to absent himself from those parts without delay are not likely to be realized. We do not vouch for the entire truth of this report as we have given it - can only say we have stated it as it came to us. There is no doubt however that a colored acting Deputy Marshal was killed last week where we have stated by the person named.

On the Trail
Diron Ahlquist
Secretary/Editor Oklahombres Journal

The earliest reference I have seen in regards to black deputies come from the Indian Pioneer Papers at OHS. They mention a posse led by "Negro" Smith out of Fort Smith in 1867 after a stagecoach robbery near Atoka in the Choctaw Nation had occurred. The stagecoach driver named Nickolds had been murdered during the robbery. I haven't any other information on Smith. He could or may be not the person referenced in this newspaper article from 1871. It is interesting they say the black man was "acting" as a deputy marshal. Which may imply he was a posseman and not commissioned by the federal court, which at the time was working out of Van Buren, Arkansas.

Don't know if it will help in your search but the Fort Smith records show Thomas Ross, 1871, 1872, and 1880 under Jacket Number 163 for the crime of murder. He also appears in the same jacket with Mary White and Lizzy Lowry for assault in 1876.

Hey there Mike

Thanks for the info on the Fort Smith court records. I should have thought of that. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in a new find that I forget the obvious:-) Thanks again! Hopefully the court papers will have the deputy's name.

On the Trail
Diron Ahlquist
Secrtary/Editor Oklahombres Journal