Cherokee County, from The Advocate, 4/09/1898
Cherokee Co. OK Archives 
Copyright c 2003 by: Mollie Stehno, e-mail: shoop@orcacom.net
This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Cherokee Co. OK Archives. 
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Twenty-Three Men Subjected To Indignities By The Mob

April 9, 1898- The Cherokee Advocate-The more the burning of McGeesey and 
Sampson the two Seminole Indians is investigated the more horrible the detail 
connected with this terrible crime becomes.  Truth almost staggers the mind when 
it is confronted with the indignities and cruelties practiced by this senseless 
mob of human beings, and the acts of these men will be handed down as one of the 
darkest plots in the history of the southwest.
	Last Monday began an investigation that was instigated by the federal 
government for the purpose of finding out the damage done the Seminole Indians 
by this mob, Mr. W. F. Wells was sent down by the U. S. Indian office at 
Muskogee.  He went to Wewoka Sunday and after preliminary arrangements had been 
consummated he began taking the sworn statements of those who will make a claim 
on the government for damages.  Stuart Gordon & Lewis of this city are attorneys 
for the 23 Indians who set up a claim for damages and the first sent Mr. W. E. 
Hailey out of Wewoka to assist the government's agent in securing testimony as 
to the amount of damages sustained by their clients.
	Of the 23 claimants 21 are Seminoles and two are Creeks.  Each one of 
these 23 men was subjected to cruel treatment by George P. Harjo and John 
Washington received most attention from the job.  Harjo as arrest and taken to 
Mrs. Leard's house, the house occupied by the murdered woman.  He was then 
confronted by the young son of Mr. Leard, who failed to identify him as one of 
the two who assaulted his mother.  Notwithstanding this he was kept three days 
and during that time every manner of indignity was practiced upon him to extort 
a confession either implicating himself or someone else.  The mob told him they 
were going to kill him and asked which way he preferred death, shooting or 
burning.  Hay was scattered all over the room in which he was chained and they 
told him that he might as well prepare for death.  The job told Harjo that 
McGeesey had said that Hays had killed te woman, but Hays not knowing anything 
about the murder f the woman would make no statement.  On the evening of the 
third day Harjo was released by not until he had been rudely treated and 
subjected to all indignities conceivable and having gone for three days without 
a morsel to eat or drink.
	John Washington fared worse than Harjo, John also knew nothing of the 
murder.  Six or eight men went to his house while he was eating breakfast.  The 
men never knocked by three of them suddenly burst the door open with the butt 
end of their Winchesters.  Washington did not have time to ask a question until 
every man had his gun pointed at him.  They put a chain around him and led him 
to Leard's house. Then they brought him before the son of the murdred woman, but 
as in Harjo's case he failed to recognize him as one who had committed the 
assault.  Washington was held for five days.  During all this time he was 
allowed nothing to eat or drink and only brief snatches of sleep were allowed 
him by the howling, cursing, vi9ndictive men who composed the job.  He was 
placed in bed the night of the first day chained to another man with a trace 
chain.  He was awakened and taken out of bed in the middle of the night.  His 
hands were tied in front of him, a trace chain being used for the purpose, and 
he was taken away from the house fifty years.  There a rope was placed around 
his neck and the rope was then thrown over the limb of a tree.  The job caught 
hold of the rope and pulled him up and he was soon unconscious.  When he awoke 
to consciousness the men were kicking him al over the boy and punching him with 
Winchesters.  When he showed signs of animation one man took him by the hair of 
the head and jerked him to a sitting posture.  He was then told to get up.  The 
man was taken to the house and placed in ed and chained to another suspected 
party.  All through the second day he received injuries of different kinds, men 
would come in and punch him wit Winchesters, would pull his hair and torture him 
in every conceivable manner.  On the third day he was again taken into the yard.  
He was stripped of his clothing, every vestige of which was examined.  No blood 
was found however and the clothing was replaced.  Washington was kept tow more 
days, and during all that time his ill treatment was kept up, and he was given 
the information that it was only a question of time until he would be burned to 
death.  The mob would come in three or four at a time and point their guns at 
Washington.  We would shut his eyes expecting momentarily to be blown to pieces, 
and for three long days and nights this torture was kept up.  Finally he was 
released by the mob after the two Indians had been buried.
	Thomas McGeesey's house and all its contents were burned by the mob.  The 
outhouses, barns, and fences were consumed.  Others who are filing claims for 
indemnity had their houses injured, windows broken in and the property damaged 
generally while they were submitted to nameless and indignities and their lie 
threatened.
	In the investigation it develops that United States Commissioner Walter 
Fears was at Wewoka during the time the mob was committing all the deviltry and 
that he allowed the mob to come there and arrest one man if not two, without any 
warrant.  This may lead to further investigation.
	These claims twenty-three in number will be filed with the Secretary of 
the Interior.  The amount of damages has not yet been specified, and the 
indemnity paid will no doubt be commensurate, as far as possible with the 
damages sustained by the Indians---Daily Capital.