As I described in my post of July 10, 2011, my great grandfather, Sam Paul, divorced his wife Lucy, and then killed her brother, Gibson McKinsey in 1872, when McKinsey threatened Sam for mistreating his sister. Sam was not charged with murder by the Chickasaw court, so he was now free, but he was now faced with the responsibility of caring his young son Joe. Sam's mother Ela Teecha had just passed away, and his sister Sippia was away in school at Fort Sill, so Joe was probably taken in by his aunt and uncle, Mary and Tecumseh McClure. In spite of the fact that Mary and Lucy were sisters, Sam seems to have maintained cordial relations with the McClures, at least for the time being.
As Sam's father Smith Paul got older, Sam took on more responsibility for the family farm - it was more of a ranch now. Sam married again in 1874, this time to a white woman, Sarah Lambert, and so he was able to move his little son Joe back home with him. About 10 months later, Sam and Sarah had their first child together, another son whom they named Smith Whealton or "Buck" Paul, after Sam's father Smith Paul.
Over the next two years Sam's sister Sippia married William Hull, a blacksmith she had met at Fort Sill; Sam and Sarah had another child, William Hyram Paul, my grandfather; Sam's brother in law Tom Waite died; Sam's half sister Kathrine moved east to Ohio to see that her younger children got a good education, and Sam's father, Smith Paul, at the age of 65, got married again to a young school teacher named Sara Lillie.
Another event occurred in 1875 that would have serious consequences for Sam Paul. Isaac C. Parker was appointed judge over the Federal District Court of Western Arkansas in Fort Smith, Arkansas. This court had been given jurisdiction over cases involving federal law in Indian Territory in 1871, but it had been somewhat ineffective. Parker was determined to bring law and order to the frontier, and his efforts would later earn him the nickname of "the hanging judge." He and Sam Paul would meet several times.
In 1875 Indians were subjected to racial profiling in regards to the sale and consumption of liquor. The problem of alcoholism among Indians had been well known for generations, and the sale of alcohol to Indians was prohibited by both tribal and federal law. There were some though, including Sam Paul, who believed that Indians should have the same rights to alcohol as white men, so Sam had no qualms about going into the business of bootlegging. Sam's partner in this enterprise was a widow named Nancy Bryley, the proprietor of a saloon near Pauls Valley. Knowing Sam's subsequent history, it's possible that he and Nancy had more than just a business relationship.
At any rate the two were arrested, charged with selling liquor to Indians, and fined by Judge Parker. The saloon business was good though and Sam may have continued to operate a saloon after his conviction, at least that was the rumor, according to a cowboy named Robert Flanagan, who worked for Sam Paul in about 1880:
I have helped bury lots of men in the old Pauls Valley Cemetery, who died "with their boots on," and no one knew them or knew where they came from. About a mile northwest of where Pauls Valley is now, there was a log house that was a saloon and gambling place. I believe Smith (Sam) Paul owned this place. Anyway that was the general impression. About a mile or two west of this saloon was a creek next to the River known as "Dead Man's Hollow." This was where most of those men whom I helped bury were killed. It was dangerous to go into the saloon and gambling den, get drunk and flash your money around. If you did, it was just the same as suicide. Mexicans, Indians, and cowboys made the saloon their regular "hang-out."
I never drank much nor gambled either but I have been there several times and witnessed shooting and killing scrapes. Once a cowboy from the Williams ranch twenty miles west of Pauls Valley got into an argument with three Mexicans over a card game. He was about my age, wore a large white hat, high-heeled boots, and two pistols. It seemed that these three men were trying to cheat him out of his winnings in the game. He jumped up, kicked the table over and began shooting with both guns. When the smoke cleared away, there were three dead Mexicans on the floor. I don't know what they did with the dead men but I couldn't help admiring the way that young chap handled his guns.
Ironically, in the same year that Sam Paul was arrested for bootlegging, he also became involved in law enforcement. This is the way it happened. B. F. Overton, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, received a request to apprehend a certain John Ferral, who was wanted for murder in Texas, and Galloway Frazier, head of the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police, notified Harrison McLane, sheriff of Pickens County, to be on the lookout for the fugitive. Incidentally, this was the same Harrison McLane who had helped Sam kill Gibson McKinsey.
McLane got a tip that Ferral had been seen at widow Bryley's saloon, and when he went there to arrest him, he found his old friend Sam Paul. Since McLane didn't have a horse to carry the prisoner back to Tishomingo, he deputized Sam and left his prisoner at Sam's house for safe keeping along with another deputy, Jacob Kelder.
Things went well until after supper when Sam took the prisoner upstairs and prepared to shackle him to the bed. Ferral broke free, jumped out of the window, and started running across the lawn. Sam and Kelder ran Ferral down and killed him, even though he begged for mercy.
Since the prisoner was white, the case was referred to Judge Parker's court in Fort Smith. Sam Paul was convicted after it was proven that the fatal shots had come from his gun, and he would have gone to prison, but the Chickasaw Court also heard the case and decided in Sam's favor. They ruled that Sam had killed Ferral in his capacity as a deputy sheriff, and they requested and obtained a federal pardon for Sam Paul.
So after his third scrape with the law, Sam Paul again walked free, and instead of being declared public enemy number one, he was elected constable. He also joined the Chickasaw Light Horse Police.
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