American Legion conducts Charlie Price funeral

— Sequoyah County Democrat, Oct. 6, 1922

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the Oct. 5, 1997, issue of the Sequoyah County Times)

–Sequoyah County had an unemployment rate of 6.3 percent for August, up slightly from the jobless rate for July, reports the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

The commission reports the county‚s unemployment rate for July was 6.2 percent. The jobless rate in the county is up considerable over a year ago, when only 4.9 percent of the county‚s labor force was unemployed, the commission reports.

50 Years Ago

(From the Oct. 12, 1972, issue of the Sequoyah County Times)

—Dr. Glenn Robbins Jr. has moved from Tahlequah to Sallisaw to set up practice in the field of Osteopathic medicine.

He has established his office at the old Sequoyah Manor Nursing Home located on Walnut St. He and his wife, Marilyn, and their two-year-old daughter Danielle, moved to Sallisaw last week.

—Two brothers were taken into custody Tuesday night by Sallisaw Police officers following a high-speed chase on the west edge of the city, Bill Sizemore, police chief said.

Sizemore said he and officers J.C. Rider and Sam Lockhart answered a call for assistance from Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Herman Skelton after Skelton saw an auto run a stop sign at the intersection of U.S. 59 and 64 on the west side of town.

Skelton identified the auto as being stolen from Pryor last week and called for assistance.

The stolen car was chased west on a gravel road near the Southwest Wood Preserving plant, across U.S. 64 and up a deadend road, where two of the vehicle‚s three occupants were arrested after their car ran into a ditch.

75 Years Ago

(From the Oct. 10, 1947, issue of the Sequoyah County Times)

—Highway Patrolmen Harry Davis and K.O. Rayburn issued a warning Thursday that any driver caught with faulty lights on his automobile will be arrested.

“No matter if a light has been out only 10 minutes, the driver will have to explain it to the judge,” they said.

Both headlights must be in proper working order as well as the tail light, according to the patrolmen.

—The advance representative, Art Miller, for the Kelly-Miller Circus, was in the Times office this week with the information that he had completed preliminary arrangements for the appearance of that circus in Sallisaw, Oct. 22.

Miller said there would be two performances, one in the afternoon and one at night.

The circus will be at the fairgrounds in the north section of Sallisaw.

—Sam Trotter, charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly made a pass with a knife last Saturday night at Sam C. Lockhart, waived preliminary hearing before Bill Russell, justice of the peace, Monday, and was bound over to district court.

100 years ago

(From the Oct. 6, 1922, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat)

—Hundreds of Sallisaw and surrounding community men, women and children gathered at the Iron Mountain tracks early this morning and watched the arrival and unloading of the Gollmar Brothers combined four ring circus, which will exhibit this afternoon and evening on the circus grounds east of town. The crowd was electrified by the immense size of the circus. More than twenty-five cars loaded with wagons, animals of all kinds and circus entertainers made up the circus train.

—Sam Lockhart who was charged with participating in the bank raid on the Hollister, Missouri bank a few weeks ago and was acquitted at his preliminary hearing at Branson, Missouri last Friday was brought to this city by Sheriff C.M. Gay to answer the charge of stealing an automobile from the Max Reager garage, on Aug. 30. Lockhart was captured eighty miles from the scene of the Hollister Bank raid and at his trial the bank officials failed to identify him as one of the three men who successfully pulled the raid. Lockhart was in Sallisaw during the day, it is said, on which the car was stolen.

—Beside the graves of his mother and father, respected citizens, the body of Charlie Price, age 26, was buried in the Buffington Cemetery, Monday afternoon. He died early Sunday morning in a hospital at Eureka Springs, Ark., from wounds he sustained when citizens shot him and four companions during a raid on the First National Bank on Sept. 26. His brother, George, age 37, died an hour after he was wounded. Si Wilson, of Cookson, was instantly killed in the holdup. George was buried in Buffington Cemetery Friday afternoon. Charlie‚s grave is next to his.

A confession to more than a dozen bank robberies in Cherokee, Mayes and Sequoyah counties, Oklahoma and in the northwest part of Arkansas, was left incomplete when Charlie passed away, it is said.

According to Sheriff C.M. Gay who went to Eureka Springs, following the unsuccessful raid on the bank there and who questioned young Price before he died, he admitted he was the third member of the gang that raided the First National Bank at Muldrow last June. He denied, however, that he obtained the $15,000 of liberty bonds that were never recovered after this holdup. Charlie escaped, following the raid on the Muldrow bank, by jumping a wire fence with his horse, but his brother, Reece Price, is now serving a 20-year sentence and Monroe Cook a 15-year sentence for their part in the raid.

The local American Legion post participated in the funeral of Charlie Price. A regular military funeral was given him. He was a member of Carnie Welch post of this city. Services at the grave were conducted by Rev. Miller. Pallbearers were members of the local American Legion post.