LAST LEGAL INDIAN EXECUTION IS IN NOVEMBER 1894
Compiled by John Stallings Woodward "Buttonhole Kinfolks 1994"
Compiled by John Stallings Woodward "Buttonhole Kinfolks 1994"
Choctaw Indian executions came to an end Nov. 4, 1894 when Silion Lewis was shot to death at high noon near the small courthouse in which he was sentenced to die two years earlier by Judge H. J. Holson.
Lewis was convicted of having a part in the death of Joe Hoklotubbee, then sheriff of Gaines County and also a leader in the Nationalist party of the Choctaw nation.
Lewis was head of the opposing political party, the Progressive, and according to history reportedly admitted the slaying of Hoklotubbee.
Lewis' wife, only 17 years old when she married her prominent husband, gave the following account in her own words to a reporter.
"Lewis was about 64 years of age and a prominent an in the area of what now is Blanco. He owned more than 100 head of horses, several cows hogs and many acres of farming land.
"Father was farming for Lewis on a sharecrop basis and the family lived in half of Lewis' home. We had known each other about a year before the marriage on June 4.
"Lewis had admitted firing the gun that killed Hoklotubbee, but believed up until the last minute that his friends would not permit his execution for the murder.
"He already had been sentenced to death and told to go home and make final preparations when the marriage took place. They asked him to report to the old council house near Wilburton on the morning of the execution.
"We carried on a normal married life through the summer. Lewis managed his property as usual, but we made several trips to McAlester and Hartshorne. There were discussions on the trouble, but no plans were made beyond November.
"On one of these trips to Hartshorne, we stopped at a photography shop to have a family portrait made. This is the only picture of Lewis during his life. As November drew nearer, friends began to plead with Lewis to leave and never come back, but he brushed off their between two mulberry trees. During the 1930's grave-robbers dug into the grave looking for buried Indian treasure. Of course they didn't find anything.
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