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500 Miles to Nowhere
The Legend of Bass Reeves
Fred Eason
Copyright © 2012 Fred Eason
This work is fiction.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
The Publisher makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any commercial damages.
2012-04-24
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to my father, Eben Obey Eason, who tried, without success, throughout his life to publish a novel.
Acknowledgements
This work was inspired by conversations with Bennie Westphal, who is a descendent of William P. Pittcock, depicted in this book, as well as the Westphal side of the family who were mainly railroad engineers. Bennie was most directly responsible for securing Fort Smith as the site for the new U. S. Marshal’s Museum and first told me about Bass Reeves. I had never heard of Bass Reeves, but Bennie inspired me to research the subject through the several historical books that have been written about him, as stated in the introduction of this book.
I would also like to thank the team at FastPencil who helped to create this book: Mariena Foley was my project manager. Marian Jane Sanders edited this and my previous book and Matt O’Leary created two outstanding book covers for this and my previous book.
I would like to thank my son, Robert Eason, who also spent a lot of time editing and making suggestions to make the book more interesting.
Foreword
This book is based on some true stories about Bass Reeves and some fictional stories about Bass Reeves imagined by the author. By all historical accounts, Bass was an exceptional U.S. Marshal serving under Judge Parker’s Court. According to history, he was selected by Judge Parker because of his previous experience as a bounty hunter out of the prior Van Buren Court. He was also selected because of his ability to speak all of the Indian languages. He learned their languages while he was a runaway slave during and after the Civil War. His race did not seem to be an issue with Judge Parker, although it was obvious that there was a lot of prejudice during that time among white people. The most interesting thing about Bass Reeves, as only one of a handful of black marshals, is that the vast majority of criminals in the Indian Territory were white. One could imagine the potential conflicts involving a black lawman and mostly white criminals.
During his lifetime, Bass became friends with Belle Star, who was friends with Frank James and Bob Dalton and other interesting characters of the time. Many of the events in this book are fictional, even though many of the characters were real. History does not say that Colonel George Reeves was the father of Bass Reeves. The author simply draws that conclusion in the book based upon the relationship between the two men and the fact that both Bass and his mother lived in the Reeves’ home and were treated like family.
The time period covered is the time when Judge Parker’s court was the only law that existed other than the Indian Police, the “Lighthorse.” Criminals were executed by order of Parker, with no appeal to a higher court. That period covers the time from 1875, when Judge Parker began to preside, until the court was ended in 1896. Even though he caused many men to be put to death, history shows that Judge Parker was against capital punishment. The geography of the events in the book are historically correct, occurring in the Indian Territory which is now the State of Oklahoma.
Deputy U.S. Marshals, J.H. Mershon, William P. Pittcock, Bud Kell and Heck Thomas were all living and working for U.S. Marshal Colonel Thomas Boles and Judge Parker at that time.
This book is primarily fiction which is loosely based upon the life of Bass Reeves, and is not intended to be historically correct.
There are a number of very good books which discuss the actual history of Bass Reeves. Perhaps the most historically correct book was Black Gun, Silver Star, written by Art T. Burton. Art T. Burton was a professor of history at South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois. He also wrote the book Black, Buckskin, and Blue and the book, Black, Red, and Deadly.
Paul L. Brady wrote a book The Black Badge that includes interviews with descendants of Bass Reeves, which would include Paul L. Brady. In 1972, Brady was the first African American to be appointed as a Federal Administrative Law Judge, where he served for 25 years.
There is also a book that was written for children by R. Gregory Christie called Bad News for Outlaws, The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal.
The “Bible” for facts regarding Judge Isaac C. Parker’s court, is called Hell on the Border, written in about 1898 by S.W. Harman and C.P. Sterns. Many of the facts in this novel were taken from this great book. Parts of Judge Parker’s famous charge to a Grand Jury has been used from the above source.
Wikipedia also provided some interesting facts about the life of Bass Reeves.
All of the above books can be ordered from Amazon.com.
He Needed Killing
Jim Webb jumped out of a window of Bywaters’ store and made a run for his horse, but deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves rode up on his horse and ordered the outlaw to surrender. Bass had been trying to catch the outlaw for two years and he wasn’t about to let him get away. The outlaw turned and started shooting at the marshal with his rifle, grazing the marshal’s saddle horn with his first shot and shattering a button on his coat with the second and then blasting the reins right out of the marshal’s hands with the third shot. With the sounds of BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! still ringing in his ears and the turbulence of the bullets narrowly missing his body, the marshal dove off his horse, landed on his feet and aimed his own Winchester rifle at the outlaw and fired twice, with both rounds hitting the man and ending the fight, but not before a fourth .44 caliber bullet from the outlaw’s rifle had put a hole in the brim of the marshal’s hat. He was still a bit rattled by the close misses as he walked over to the outlaw.
As Bass approached the outlaw, he had just enough life left to utter “I have killed eleven men and expected for you to be the twelfth. Take my guns as your prize. You earned them.” The marshal took Webb’s pistol and put it in his saddle bag and attached Webb’s rifle to his saddle. He then tied Webb’s body to his horse to carry him back to the prison wagon. He took the man’s saddle to the livery stable and sold it to pay for Webb’s burial. The marshal saved Webb’s boots and gun belt to show to Judge Parker so he could collect his reward.
Jim Webb had a $5,000 bounty on his head, as he had “skipped out” on a $17,000 bond and the marshal would be happy to collect it. $5,000 was a lot of money in 1884. This reward would be used to invest in more top notch horses on the farm he owned in Van Buren, just across the river from Fort Smith, where Judge Parker’s court was held. He would have preferred not to have killed Webb, but had no choice in the matter. His orders as a U.S. Marshal, serving
