Bass Reeves, lawman extraordinaire
Astride his big red stallion, with two Colt revolvers on his belt, and a Winchester rifle in a scabbard by his side. Bass Reeves is one of the most imposing figures on this rough frontier. Standing at six foot two inches, he wears a black hat, face clean shaven save for a thick, bristly mustache. On his vest, the silver star of the U.S. Marshall Services. He is one of the first black men to wear the badge.
Reeves was born in July of 1838, in Crawford County. In 1845 he resettled near the town of Sherman, south of the Red River. Bass always felt he was a Texan, so he carried himself in that manner. Reeves spent time hiding in the Indian Territory, knowing if he was caught, he could be killed. In 1864, he, married a Texas woman named Jennie and the couple raised four children in Van Buren.
Deputy Marshalls hired him to work as a guide since he was familiar with the Indian Territory and their languages. In 1875, Isaac Parker was appointed to the bench in Fort Smith to bring law and order to this territorial land. Records indicate that only fifty or, so men were ever brave or foolish enough to enlist at any given time.
He served as Deputy Marshal for the next three decades. First working out of the courts in Fort Smith and then in Paris, Texas. He always quoted bible verses when he arrested criminals. He would also preach to them all the way to jail. He claims to have captured over three thousand outlaws. At sixty-seven years old, Reeves was still a formidable officer. While lying in bed, sick with pneumonia, he arrested a man and put him in jail. However, Reeves’s authority to make such arrests was coming to an end.
In 1907, the Oklahoma and Indian territories entered the Union as Oklahoma, the forty sixth state. The first statue passed by the new state government was the Jim Crow law. His career abruptly ended. Reeves’s health declined toward the end of 1909. He died on Jan. 12, 1910, of kidney disease. In May of 2012, a statue of Reeves was placed in Pendergraft Park in Fort Smith.