Noted bank bandit given freedom by Walton

— Sequoyah County Democrat, Aug. 24, 1923

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 23, 1998, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Farm Service Agency officials are matching those with hay to those without hay due to the state’s drought conditions, Bernie Gipson, Sequoyah County executive director of the agency, said.

Gipson said Thursday, “We are conducting a new effort to match farmers and ranchers suffering from hay shortages with producers having hay surpluses.

“Some areas have surpluses and some have severe shortages,” Gipson said. “This is a new and exciting way to get producers in both situations in touch with each other.”

Hay Net is a national clearing house for producers with shortages or surpluses of hay, Gipson said. Farmers are encouraged to sign up and register their hay situation at the Farm Service Agency office.

50 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 23, 1973, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Sequoyah County taxpayers are getting a better return on their tax dollars invested in state government than ever before, state Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hamilton told the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce Tuesday at noon.

Hamilton likened the taxpayers of the county to the stockholders of the largest single employer in Sequoyah County. As a state senator, Hamilton compared himself to a member of the board of directors.

—The new vocational-technical school located in Sallisaw will start its first full year of activities Monday when classes begin for the 1973-74 school year, Gene Beach, superintendent has announced.

Beach said that mainly the classes will be made up of high school students from the area high schools, but if vacancies are present in some of the classes, adults will be invited to enroll.

Both morning and afternoon classes will be conducted. Sessions will last for three hours each.

75 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 27, 1948, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —C.B. Sanders, 58, Vian resident, was in fair condition at a Fort Smith hospital Thursday recovering from injuries inflicted Monday by an enraged sow. Sanders fell in the pen where the sow was nursing young pigs.

—Daily garbage disposal from the downtown business area which will begin Sept. 1, under city supervision, will be one of the biggest sanitary moves in Sallisaw in years, Bill Lea, president of the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce said Thursday.

Chamber of Commerce officials secured signatures to petitions requesting garbage disposal, presented the petitions to the city commission and the city passed ordinances for the collection and disposal of the garbage.

100 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 24, 1923, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —Ed Lockhart, the most noted bank bandit in eastern Oklahoma, who, last March plead guilty to robbing the Farmers Bank of Illinois at Gore, in the western part of this county and was sentenced by former District Judge J.H. Jarman of this city, now a member of the State Supreme Court Commission, to serve twenty years at hard labor in the state penitentiary, has been given a six-months leave of absence was granted this week and expires Feb. 21, 1924.

Lockhart is alleged to have been implicated in numerous bank robberies in this state and Arkansas and is badly wanted by officials at Harrison, Arkansas where he was with Henry Starr when he was killed in a daylight holdup of the Peoples State Bank in that city several years ago, and is accused of other holdups in that section of Arkansas. Lockhart was captured by the Arkansas officers and made a sensational escape from the jail at Harrison by covering the jailor with an imitation pistol covered with tinfoil, forcing him to open his cell door and after disarming him, forced the jailor to accompany him to the outskirts of that city were an automobile was waiting to whisk him back to this state.

Ed Lockhart was reared in this county near Marble City, and is only thirty years of age. His brother, Sam is several years younger. Ed is well liked by all who know him personally and has never been known to kill during his brief but sensational career as a daring bandit.

He has a wife and two small sons living at St. Joe, (From the Aug. 29, 1919, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat and Star-Gazette) —Lieut. J. Raymond Frye, the last of Sallisaw boys has arrived on this side of the ocean, having landed Tuesday in New York. Lieut. Frye has been overseas over fifteen months and served with several different units while “overthere.” He was with a Replacement Camp, 33rd army headquarters and has been stationed in Coblence with the 3rd army headquarters since the armistice. He was one of the first three men to be sent to training under the draft by the local board in August 1917.

—With the construction of the cotton compress, which is nearing completion and will be ready in ample time to handle the cotton crop this season, this city will be one of the most active cotton markets in the state. A delegation of farmers residing in the Blain bottoms in Haskell county just across the Arkansas river from this county arrived in this city Thursday to confer with a committee from the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce in regard to establishing a free ferry across the river so that the cotton farmers of that section can bring their cotton to market here. At a meeting of the farmers of that section held last Monday, 29 farmers agreed to furnish teams labor to build a good road in Haskell county leading to the ferry and the Chamber of Commerce of this city are arranging to put the roads on this side of the river leading into Sallisaw, in good condition.

Arkansas, but who will immediately move to this city to reside in the future. It was on account of their straightened condition that the leave of absence was granted in order that Ed might have sufficient time to properly provide for their future while serving his term in the penitentiary.

—The First bale of 1923 cotton to be gathered from Sequoyah County’s crop was ginned in a Fort Smith cotton gin, Monday. The cotton was raised on the U.D. Cherry farm in the Paw Paw bottoms. The first bale this year appeared upon the market a few weeks earlier than the first bale of 1922. U.D. Cherry, the grower of the first bale is one of the county’s largest landowners and a prosperous agriculturist.