Chronicles of Oklahoma, Spring 1970 by Daniel Littlefield and Lonnie Underhill--- On April 15, 1872, at the session of the District Court there occurred a gunfight that left nine men dead and numbers wounded, two of them mortally. The fight resulted from attempts of the US Marshal from Fort Smith and his posse to arrest and take to Fort Smith Ezekiel Proctor who was on trail for the killing of one Polly Kesterson. Immediately, the incident caused the Federal government to pause to examine the conflict which had arisen over matters of jurisdiction between the US District Court at Ft.Smith and the courts of the Cherokee Nation. The long range effect of the episode was to add to the lore of that area a series of stories, often based more on fantasy than on fact. Many such stories have unfortunately not dealt kindly with some of the people involved, especially Proctor himself. Too many writers have painted him as a "bad man", murderer and outlaw when actually the records show that he was successful farmer and rancher and lawman of some note. It is doubtful that all the details will ever be known, but a complete and accurate account of that fateful event can be given.
The known facts of what precipitated the trial and therefore the fight, are few. On the morning of February 13, 1872 Zeke went to Hildebrand's Mill on Flint Creek about a half mile north of and across the creek from the present Flint, OK. There a gunfight ensued between Proctor and James Kesterson during which Mrs. Kesterson was killed. Proctor turned himself in to Jack Wright, Sheriff of Gointsnake District. [ the reason for the fight, cattle running loose etc. are unclear-see the story next to this one].
In an interview, both Oscar and Kermit Beck called the trouble that followed the killing "a family fight." Mrs. Kesterson was Polly Beck, who married first Aaron Downing, a relative of Proctor, whose mother was a Downing. Her second husband was James Crittenden and her next husband was Stephen Hildebrand who had bought the mill from a man named Towers. After Hildebrand's death Polly married Kesterson who had been married to Elizabeth Proctor, a sister of Zeke. Stephen Hildebrand's sister Rachel Hildebrand Mitchell was the mother of Zeke's first wife, Rebecca.
Sinia Ann Beck (married to George Selfridge, killed at the courthouse and Surry Eaton (White Sut) Beck were the children of Jeffrey Beck and Sally Downing, a cousin of both Zeke and his second wife Margaret Downing. Jesse (Black Sut) Beck, killed at the courthouse, was the son of Joseph Beck and Cynthia Downing, a relative of Zeke's: he married Julia Ann Hildebrand, the daughter of Stephen and (Aunt) Polly Hildebrand.
The Becks were incensed at the death of their aunt and felt that justice would not be done if Zeke were tried in the Cherokee Nation. The regular judge of Goingsnake, Tim Walker, was suspended because he was a relative of the parties involved and T. B. Wolfe was appointed. He was rejected for the same reason. Chief Lewis Downing appointed Black Haw Sixiller as a special judge to try the case. The trial had been in progress four days when Sut Beck, a nephew of Polly and J.A. Scales, a lawyer prosecuting Zeke filed an affidavit charging Sixkiller with doubtful character and asking the Chief to suspend him under a law from 1845 called "An Act to Authorize the Chief to Suspend from Office".
Chief Downing was in a quandary, for he was related to both families. Downing did not feel that the charges were substantiated nor that they fell under the Act of 1845. Yet, he temporarily suspended Judge Sixkiller and called a meeting of the Executive Council (James Vann, James Baldridge and Daniel Red Bird) for April 4, 1872. All the papers were laid out. After deliberation, Captain James Vann stated his opinion which was unanimously agreed upon by those present he could not see that Sixkiller had erred or broken the law, nor did he find evidence that the allegations of Beck and Scales were such as to warant the dismissal of Sixkiller. It appeared to Vann that the main burden of the complaint was the ruling of the Judge not to postpone the trial once more, as he had twice done already on the motion of the prosecution. The judge had also refused to permit the prosecution to impeach the jury before the case was opened. He therefore asked that the Council sustain Judge Sixkiller, withdraw his suspension, and recommend that the trial proceed. Therefore the Council resolved that the action of the prosecution in the case was reprehensible, that it had "fractiously trumped up charges against Judge Sixkiller." That the charges were intended to defeat the ends of justice, to create excitement and prejudice and to create a delay detrimental to the rights of the prisoner in contempt of the Constitution, thereby setting a dangerous precedent.
The wording of the Council's resolution suggests their awareness of the problem of jurisdiction, which probably gave them more impetus to avoid setting a precedent. The Sheriff of Goingsnake had held Zeke under arrest and at the second calling of the court a Deputy US Marshal asked the sheriff to release the prisoner to him on the basis of a writ which was obtain from Fort Smith.
The sheriff refused saying that he would do so only on the order of the acting Principal Chief. The sheriff felt that the marshal might return to take Proctor by force and so he increased his guard to prevent such an ocurrence while the trial was in progress. The guards were later reduced to their usual number. Such was the state of affairs until the special circuit court met at the Whitmere schoolhouse in Goingsnake District on April 15, 1872,at the request of Judge Black Haw Sixkiller. The same jury was sitting. Moses Alberty, defense lawyer, argured that the Judge had not been suspended but only called before the Council which was to determine whether he should be suspended and that the Council had sustained the Judge and ordered the trial to proceed.It was at ths point the gunfight began.
On April 11, Kesterson had filed information before James O. Churchill, US Commissioner at Ft. Smith, seeking a writ for the arrest of Proctor for assault with intent to kill (Kesterson had been wounded). Churchhill issued a writ and gave instructions to Deputy US Marshals, J.G. Peavy and J. G. Owens to go to the courthouse at arrest Zeke if he was acquitted and bring hm to Ft. Smith. Thus, armed with the writ and joned by the Beck party, the posse rode to the courthouse.
The posse hitched their horses about 50 yeards from the schoolhouse, formed by two's and moved to the house. The marshals, led by White Sut beck, cocked their guns as they marched. No apparent notice was made of them until the leader, White Sut Beck, who had his double-barreled shotgun cocked and presented, ordered the sheriff, stationed at the door, to get out of the way. One of the jurors, George Blackwood, was facing the one door to the courtroom and noticing the sheriff shoved out of the way, shouted for everybody 'to look out that they were coming to get Zeke Proctor and at this instant the shooting began". Johnson Proctor, unarmed and near the door, grabbed the barrel of Beck's shotgun, pulling it from above head high to between shoulder and waist high. By that time the shotgun had been discharged, scattering all of the shot from the first barrel into Johnson's abdomen. Johnson, still grasping the barrel, threw the second barrel's shot well below knee level, sending a few scattered shot into Zeke Proctor's legs, one leg receiving a severe wound. The next shots fired hit Moses Alberty, attorney for the defense as he sat at the clerk's table. He died in his seat. Samuel Beck stepped in front of White Sut Beck and the attacking column and fell and died, shot by one of the men inside. A part of the guard was outside the building at the time the firing began and soon the battle raged around the building.
Arriving at the site around 1 p.m. W. P. Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Advocate was met with a sight which was near disbelief. Three men lying dead just before the doorsteps. A few steps off to the right lay a body and next to the chimney behind the house a man lay goraning, in the bushes another dead man.
Among the wounded was the Judge Sixkiller, Deputy Owens, a man generally respected on both sides of the "line", who died the next day. Some badly wounded were not seen, having fled or been taken off by their friends. The fight lasted no more that 15 minutes. Eight bodies were taken to the nerest residence. Another body was found a quarter mile away. On Zeke's side those who died besides the Judge and Johnson Proctor was Andrew Palone. The Beck side dead were Samuel and Black Sut and William Beck, William Hicks, Jim Ward, George Selvidge and Riley Woods.
Ohers wounded were Isaac Vann, White Sut Beck, some of the jury.
The court reconvened the next day at the home or Arch Scraper, foreman of the jury. The jury acquitted Porctor.
But the bitterness of feeling between the Cherokees and the US Marshals created an air of distrust which laid the groundwork for the gunfight. James Huckleberry, the US District Attorney for the Western District, Arkansas, viewed the action on the part of the Cherokee authorities as a conspiracy to thwart the authority of the US. He accused those who resisted the marshals of doint the same in October of 1870 and of murdering a deputy marshal named Bentz early in 1872. The Federal court in turn had convicted four persons at the May and November terms of 1871 for resisting the marshals' forces in Goingsnake District. Huckleberry went on to accuse the Cherokeeof not only failing to aid the marshals in making arrests but also of placing obstacles in the way of US authority. Sixkiller's purpose of holding court in the schoolhouse was that it afforded the Proctor party a better place to resist the marshals. Deputy US Marshal James Donnelly, in a letter to Huckleberry went even further in his accusations. He accused Proctor and his friends of belonging to the Pin Indians who had "sworn to kill every Indian or citizen of the Cherokee Nation who gives testimony or information in US courts against another Indian or Cherokee citizen (adopted whites)...
After Owens had been shot, Deputy Peavy sent a messenger to Donnelly, asking for reinforcements. Donnelly sent 21 men under Charles Robinson to Goingsnake District. When Robinson arrived at Mrs. Whitmore's he found that the other side had retreated into the hills; he decided not to follow them. Robinson and a Dr. C.W.Pierce went to Tahlequah to see Chief Downing. Robinson demanded the surrender of Jessie Shell, Zeke Proctor, Soldier Walking-stick, Sixkiller, Thomas Walking-stick, John Creek, John Proctor, Issac Vann, Ellis Foreman, Joe Channey and the members of the jury that had sat at the trial. Chief Downing replied that he did nt recognize the authority of the marshals to make such a demand. Donnelly then sent a posse under Peavy and F.M. Shannon to Gointsnake "to protect as far as possible, the Cherokees who are desirous of seeing the US laws upheld in the Cherokee Nation" and to arrest the persons implicated in the gunfight. Arch Scraper and Ellis Foreman were arrested and taken to Fort Smith. Foreman was suffering from wounds and Scraper was put in irons. There they were bailed out, and imprisoned again, even though they were not participants in the fight. They were finally placed under heavy bonds and ordered to appear at the November session of the US Court.
Proctor, fearing reprisal retreated to Rabbit Trap in the hills with about 50 men. Also hiding in the hills were Judge Sixkiller, Taylor Sixkiller and John Shell all of whom were members of the Cherokee Senate. All of the men who were named in the warrant finally surrendered and gave bail. However, Indian Agent John Jones appealed to the US Attorney General to dismiss the case against Scraper, Foreman and these latter men; after an investigation the Attorney General granted the request. The Cherokee aughorities, on the other hand, indicated White Sut Beck and several others who had ridden with the posse for the murder of Johnson Proctor and for resistence to officers of the Cherokee Nation. Beck left the Nation. ...
Two days after the event Chief Downing advised the Cherokee delegates to Washington DC-WP Ross, WP Adair and C.N. Vann to bring the issue before the proper governmental agency to insure prompt settlement. John Jones the Indian agent recommended that a US District Court be established at Fort Gibson as a way of relieving tensions. Many times the Indians were dragged from 50 to 100 miles to Fort Smith "compelled to give bail in a city of strangers, of whose language they are ignorant; or in default of such bail to be incarcerated in the common jail, until the meeting of the court."
...But more important to the US than the problem of jurisdiction was restoring peace between the two factions of the fight. After the case of Scraper, Sixkiller ad others was dismissed, their friends tried to reconcile them and Whit Sut Beck, Scraper and Sixkiller treated him and his party leniently and Proctor was willing to acquiesce in any action which Scraper and Sixkiller and their friends might think best. In 1873 Beck and one or two others surrendered to the Cherokee Sheriff. A trial was in order, but the Principal Chief issued an order suspending action at the request of H.R. Clum acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Although Scraper, Sixkiller and others felt that the attack on the court was criminal, they agreed to quash the prosecution of Beck if it would restore peace.
N.J. Temple, US District Attorney, Western District, Arkansas, on Oct. 21, 1873, wrote to Agent Jones: "I was directed by the Attorney General of the US to dismiss the case of US vs Zeke Proctor and others for murder at Goingsnake District, but was further directed that if the authorities on the Cherokee Nation should attempt to prosecute any of the Marshals' party, to indict again Proctor and his party." Therefore, the government, through promise of amnesty and threat of prosecutiion sought to settle the affair. The final power to dismiss the Beck case rested with the National Council. In November, 1873, it passed an amnesty act, thus closing the legal aspects of the case. However, it was not until years later, that Zeke and Beck met in Tahlequah and called off the fight. The unexpected meeting took place in 1903 at the land office.
Additional Info--Jesse Black Sut Beck is the husband of Julie Ann Hildebrand. Jesse is the son of Joseph Beck who is the son of Jeffrey Beck 1784-1838. He is shot and killed. Surrey Eaton White Sut Beck is the son of Jeffrey. He is badly wounded and escapes to Cincinnati, Arkansas and lays low. Sam Beck is killed at the court house. He is the son of Ellis Beck who is the son of Jeffrey Beck.
The Mrs. Hildebrand who was killed in the confrontation between Zeke Proctor and Mr. Kesterman was Pauline Polly Beck daughter of Jeffrey Beck and Susannah Buffington. She married Stephen Hildebrand.
Wikipedia states other possible reasons for the Feud- Zeke did not like Polly Beck Hildebrand to marry a white man. Kesterman had been married to Proctor's sister and abandoned her and her children. Polly Beck was a love interest to Zeke, or Kesterman stole some cattle.
Chronicles of Oklahoma, Spring 1970 by Daniel Littlefield and Lonnie Underhill--- On April 15, 1872, at the session of the District Court there occurred a gunfight that left nine men dead and numbers wounded, two of them mortally. The fight resulted from attempts of the US Marshal from Fort Smith and his posse to arrest and take to Fort Smith Ezekiel Proctor who was on trail for the killing of one Polly Kesterson. Immediately, the incident caused the Federal government to pause to examine the conflict which had arisen over matters of jurisdiction between the US District Court at Ft.Smith and the courts of the Cherokee Nation. The long range effect of the episode was to add to the lore of that area a series of stories, often based more on fantasy than on fact. Many such stories have unfortunately not dealt kindly with some of the people involved, especially Proctor himself. Too many writers have painted him as a "bad man", murderer and outlaw when actually the records show that he was successful farmer and rancher and lawman of some note. It is doubtful that all the details will ever be known, but a complete and accurate account of that fateful event can be given.
The known facts of what precipitated the trial and therefore the fight, are few. On the morning of February 13, 1872 Zeke went to Hildebrand's Mill on Flint Creek about a half mile north of and across the creek from the present Flint, OK. There a gunfight ensued between Proctor and James Kesterson during which Mrs. Kesterson was killed. Proctor turned himself in to Jack Wright, Sheriff of Gointsnake District. [ the reason for the fight, cattle running loose etc. are unclear-see the story next to this one].
In an interview, both Oscar and Kermit Beck called the trouble that followed the killing "a family fight." Mrs. Kesterson was Polly Beck, who married first Aaron Downing, a relative of Proctor, whose mother was a Downing. Her second husband was James Crittenden and her next husband was Stephen Hildebrand who had bought the mill from a man named Towers. After Hildebrand's death Polly married Kesterson who had been married to Elizabeth Proctor, a sister of Zeke. Stephen Hildebrand's sister Rachel Hildebrand Mitchell was the mother of Zeke's first wife, Rebecca.
Sinia Ann Beck (married to George Selfridge, killed at the courthouse and Surry Eaton (White Sut) Beck were the children of Jeffrey Beck and Sally Downing, a cousin of both Zeke and his second wife Margaret Downing. Jesse (Black Sut) Beck, killed at the courthouse, was the son of Joseph Beck and Cynthia Downing, a relative of Zeke's: he married Julia Ann Hildebrand, the daughter of Stephen and (Aunt) Polly Hildebrand.
The Becks were incensed at the death of their aunt and felt that justice would not be done if Zeke were tried in the Cherokee Nation. The regular judge of Goingsnake, Tim Walker, was suspended because he was a relative of the parties involved and T. B. Wolfe was appointed. He was rejected for the same reason. Chief Lewis Downing appointed Black Haw Sixiller as a special judge to try the case. The trial had been in progress four days when Sut Beck, a nephew of Polly and J.A. Scales, a lawyer prosecuting Zeke filed an affidavit charging Sixkiller with doubtful character and asking the Chief to suspend him under a law from 1845 called "An Act to Authorize the Chief to Suspend from Office".
Chief Downing was in a quandary, for he was related to both families. Downing did not feel that the charges were substantiated nor that they fell under the Act of 1845. Yet, he temporarily suspended Judge Sixkiller and called a meeting of the Executive Council (James Vann, James Baldridge and Daniel Red Bird) for April 4, 1872. All the papers were laid out. After deliberation, Captain James Vann stated his opinion which was unanimously agreed upon by those present he could not see that Sixkiller had erred or broken the law, nor did he find evidence that the allegations of Beck and Scales were such as to warant the dismissal of Sixkiller. It appeared to Vann that the main burden of the complaint was the ruling of the Judge not to postpone the trial once more, as he had twice done already on the motion of the prosecution. The judge had also refused to permit the prosecution to impeach the jury before the case was opened. He therefore asked that the Council sustain Judge Sixkiller, withdraw his suspension, and recommend that the trial proceed. Therefore the Council resolved that the action of the prosecution in the case was reprehensible, that it had "fractiously trumped up charges against Judge Sixkiller." That the charges were intended to defeat the ends of justice, to create excitement and prejudice and to create a delay detrimental to the rights of the prisoner in contempt of the Constitution, thereby setting a dangerous precedent.
The wording of the Council's resolution suggests their awareness of the problem of jurisdiction, which probably gave them more impetus to avoid setting a precedent. The Sheriff of Goingsnake had held Zeke under arrest and at the second calling of the court a Deputy US Marshal asked the sheriff to release the prisoner to him on the basis of a writ which was obtain from Fort Smith.
The sheriff refused saying that he would do so only on the order of the acting Principal Chief. The sheriff felt that the marshal might return to take Proctor by force and so he increased his guard to prevent such an ocurrence while the trial was in progress. The guards were later reduced to their usual number. Such was the state of affairs until the special circuit court met at the Whitmere schoolhouse in Goingsnake District on April 15, 1872,at the request of Judge Black Haw Sixkiller. The same jury was sitting. Moses Alberty, defense lawyer, argured that the Judge had not been suspended but only called before the Council which was to determine whether he should be suspended and that the Council had sustained the Judge and ordered the trial to proceed.It was at ths point the gunfight began.
On April 11, Kesterson had filed information before James O. Churchill, US Commissioner at Ft. Smith, seeking a writ for the arrest of Proctor for assault with intent to kill (Kesterson had been wounded). Churchhill issued a writ and gave instructions to Deputy US Marshals, J.G. Peavy and J. G. Owens to go to the courthouse at arrest Zeke if he was acquitted and bring hm to Ft. Smith. Thus, armed with the writ and joned by the Beck party, the posse rode to the courthouse.
The posse hitched their horses about 50 yeards from the schoolhouse, formed by two's and moved to the house. The marshals, led by White Sut beck, cocked their guns as they marched. No apparent notice was made of them until the leader, White Sut Beck, who had his double-barreled shotgun cocked and presented, ordered the sheriff, stationed at the door, to get out of the way. One of the jurors, George Blackwood, was facing the one door to the courtroom and noticing the sheriff shoved out of the way, shouted for everybody 'to look out that they were coming to get Zeke Proctor and at this instant the shooting began". Johnson Proctor, unarmed and near the door, grabbed the barrel of Beck's shotgun, pulling it from above head high to between shoulder and waist high. By that time the shotgun had been discharged, scattering all of the shot from the first barrel into Johnson's abdomen. Johnson, still grasping the barrel, threw the second barrel's shot well below knee level, sending a few scattered shot into Zeke Proctor's legs, one leg receiving a severe wound. The next shots fired hit Moses Alberty, attorney for the defense as he sat at the clerk's table. He died in his seat. Samuel Beck stepped in front of White Sut Beck and the attacking column and fell and died, shot by one of the men inside. A part of the guard was outside the building at the time the firing began and soon the battle raged around the building.
Arriving at the site around 1 p.m. W. P. Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Advocate was met with a sight which was near disbelief. Three men lying dead just before the doorsteps. A few steps off to the right lay a body and next to the chimney behind the house a man lay goraning, in the bushes another dead man.
Among the wounded was the Judge Sixkiller, Deputy Owens, a man generally respected on both sides of the "line", who died the next day. Some badly wounded were not seen, having fled or been taken off by their friends. The fight lasted no more that 15 minutes. Eight bodies were taken to the nerest residence. Another body was found a quarter mile away. On Zeke's side those who died besides the Judge and Johnson Proctor was Andrew Palone. The Beck side dead were Samuel and Black Sut and William Beck, William Hicks, Jim Ward, George Selvidge and Riley Woods.
Ohers wounded were Isaac Vann, White Sut Beck, some of the jury.
The court reconvened the next day at the home or Arch Scraper, foreman of the jury. The jury acquitted Porctor.
But the bitterness of feeling between the Cherokees and the US Marshals created an air of distrust which laid the groundwork for the gunfight. James Huckleberry, the US District Attorney for the Western District, Arkansas, viewed the action on the part of the Cherokee authorities as a conspiracy to thwart the authority of the US. He accused those who resisted the marshals of doint the same in October of 1870 and of murdering a deputy marshal named Bentz early in 1872. The Federal court in turn had convicted four persons at the May and November terms of 1871 for resisting the marshals' forces in Goingsnake District. Huckleberry went on to accuse the Cherokeeof not only failing to aid the marshals in making arrests but also of placing obstacles in the way of US authority. Sixkiller's purpose of holding court in the schoolhouse was that it afforded the Proctor party a better place to resist the marshals. Deputy US Marshal James Donnelly, in a letter to Huckleberry went even further in his accusations. He accused Proctor and his friends of belonging to the Pin Indians who had "sworn to kill every Indian or citizen of the Cherokee Nation who gives testimony or information in US courts against another Indian or Cherokee citizen (adopted whites)...
After Owens had been shot, Deputy Peavy sent a messenger to Donnelly, asking for reinforcements. Donnelly sent 21 men under Charles Robinson to Goingsnake District. When Robinson arrived at Mrs. Whitmore's he found that the other side had retreated into the hills; he decided not to follow them. Robinson and a Dr. C.W.Pierce went to Tahlequah to see Chief Downing. Robinson demanded the surrender of Jessie Shell, Zeke Proctor, Soldier Walking-stick, Sixkiller, Thomas Walking-stick, John Creek, John Proctor, Issac Vann, Ellis Foreman, Joe Channey and the members of the jury that had sat at the trial. Chief Downing replied that he did nt recognize the authority of the marshals to make such a demand. Donnelly then sent a posse under Peavy and F.M. Shannon to Gointsnake "to protect as far as possible, the Cherokees who are desirous of seeing the US laws upheld in the Cherokee Nation" and to arrest the persons implicated in the gunfight. Arch Scraper and Ellis Foreman were arrested and taken to Fort Smith. Foreman was suffering from wounds and Scraper was put in irons. There they were bailed out, and imprisoned again, even though they were not participants in the fight. They were finally placed under heavy bonds and ordered to appear at the November session of the US Court.
Proctor, fearing reprisal retreated to Rabbit Trap in the hills with about 50 men. Also hiding in the hills were Judge Sixkiller, Taylor Sixkiller and John Shell all of whom were members of the Cherokee Senate. All of the men who were named in the warrant finally surrendered and gave bail. However, Indian Agent John Jones appealed to the US Attorney General to dismiss the case against Scraper, Foreman and these latter men; after an investigation the Attorney General granted the request. The Cherokee aughorities, on the other hand, indicated White Sut Beck and several others who had ridden with the posse for the murder of Johnson Proctor and for resistence to officers of the Cherokee Nation. Beck left the Nation. ...
Two days after the event Chief Downing advised the Cherokee delegates to Washington DC-WP Ross, WP Adair and C.N. Vann to bring the issue before the proper governmental agency to insure prompt settlement. John Jones the Indian agent recommended that a US District Court be established at Fort Gibson as a way of relieving tensions. Many times the Indians were dragged from 50 to 100 miles to Fort Smith "compelled to give bail in a city of strangers, of whose language they are ignorant; or in default of such bail to be incarcerated in the common jail, until the meeting of the court."
...But more important to the US than the problem of jurisdiction was restoring peace between the two factions of the fight. After the case of Scraper, Sixkiller ad others was dismissed, their friends tried to reconcile them and Whit Sut Beck, Scraper and Sixkiller treated him and his party leniently and Proctor was willing to acquiesce in any action which Scraper and Sixkiller and their friends might think best. In 1873 Beck and one or two others surrendered to the Cherokee Sheriff. A trial was in order, but the Principal Chief issued an order suspending action at the request of H.R. Clum acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Although Scraper, Sixkiller and others felt that the attack on the court was criminal, they agreed to quash the prosecution of Beck if it would restore peace.
N.J. Temple, US District Attorney, Western District, Arkansas, on Oct. 21, 1873, wrote to Agent Jones: "I was directed by the Attorney General of the US to dismiss the case of US vs Zeke Proctor and others for murder at Goingsnake District, but was further directed that if the authorities on the Cherokee Nation should attempt to prosecute any of the Marshals' party, to indict again Proctor and his party." Therefore, the government, through promise of amnesty and threat of prosecutiion sought to settle the affair. The final power to dismiss the Beck case rested with the National Council. In November, 1873, it passed an amnesty act, thus closing the legal aspects of the case. However, it was not until years later, that Zeke and Beck met in Tahlequah and called off the fight. The unexpected meeting took place in 1903 at the land office.
Additional Info--Jesse Black Sut Beck is the husband of Julie Ann Hildebrand. Jesse is the son of Joseph Beck who is the son of Jeffrey Beck 1784-1838. He is shot and killed. Surrey Eaton White Sut Beck is the son of Jeffrey. He is badly wounded and escapes to Cincinnati, Arkansas and lays low. Sam Beck is killed at the court house. He is the son of Ellis Beck who is the son of Jeffrey Beck.
The Mrs. Hildebrand who was killed in the confrontation between Zeke Proctor and Mr. Kesterman was Pauline Polly Beck daughter of Jeffrey Beck and Susannah Buffington. She married Stephen Hildebrand.
Wikipedia states other possible reasons for the Feud- Zeke did not like Polly Beck Hildebrand to marry a white man. Kesterman had been married to Proctor's sister and abandoned her and her children. Polly Beck was a love interest to Zeke, or Kesterman stole some cattle.
Gravesite Details
List of names buried given to me by Ruth Alberty
Family Members
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