Armed Robbery in the Big Bend

As long as I can remember, my family has been friends with Merlene Morris and her family. In honor of her, I am posting an event occurring on March 25-26 of 1956. Merlene's newspaper clippings and her recollections, along with Mother's memories, have been the inspiration for this blog posting.  Thanks to Marcy Sterling and Jamie Sears at the Fairfax Library for their help as I accessed articles related to this happening from their archives of the Fairfax Chief.

                In April of 1932, Jim and Mary Clark purchased the country store in the Bend. (It was located where Sharon White Gibson now lives, about a half-mile from my mother’s farm.) The Great Depression cast a deep gloom over the entire nation, but despair, hunger, and lack hovered over the state of Oklahoma. According to an article about his knife-making that appeared in the Ponca City News during the late 1950s, the Clarks extended credit to their customers but never received payment from a few Benders during the worst economic crisis in the history of the Bend. (The photo of Mr. Clark appeared with the above mentioned article.)

                During the 1950s, Merlene and Gilbert (Junior) Morris lived on the place now owned by my mother, Bernyce Smith Gates. During that time, their three children, Gilbert Wayne Morris, Patricia Morris Chaffin, Pamela Morris Felix were born. Many events and happenings filled Merlene’s memory from those early days of her family. One of the most vivid, frightening days involved the robbery of the store owned by her grandparents-in-law, the Clarks. Junior was Mary and Jim’s grandson.

                Many of the people in the community went to the evening service at Big Bend Baptist Church on Sunday, March 25, 1956. (My parents and maternal grandparents had been asked by Brother Ray Hart to assist with music and teaching at the newly-formed Masham Baptist Church just across the Arkansas River in Pawnee County. The four of them were attending the night church service there.)

                Around 7 p.m., that evening a couple of men pulled up to the Clark Store. Jim Clark and his brother-in-law, Riley Drake were minding the store. The Fairfax Chief article from the weekly issue, published on March 29, quoted Clark as saying, “the women folk had gone to church.”

                The younger man, age 28, entered the store, pulling a gun on Mr. Clark and Mr. Drake. Even though Jim Clark at age 76 suffered a lack of mobility in his legs due to a childhood illness, he defended himself with his crutch. My father, Edmund Gates, Jr., when retelling this happening, always said, “Jim was very strong in his upper body.”

                The young perpetrator hit Mr. Clark over the head with his gun. In the scuffle, the gun fell to the store floor. Mr. Drake, the brother of Mary Clark, began hand-to-hand conflict with the would-be robber. Drake eventually secured the gun and got off a shot as the culprit fled the store without apprehension. The forty-year-old driver/accomplice had parked a short distance from Clark’s store. Upon hearing the shot, he sped from the foiled robbery site. Mr. Clark suffered head lacerations and caved-in ribs. The paper reported their bruises and scratches required medical attention.

This photo accompanied a newspaper clipping that
appeared on Mary's 88th birthday. She lived to be 99
years old, dying just a couple months shy of her 100th
birthday. She and Jim were married about 50 years.

                Merlene recalled Coyt Auld came to the door at the back of the church to tell the worshipers of the attempted robbery (An interesting piece of Bend trivia - Mr. Auld’s great-nephew, Ron Howard aka Opie Taylor, frequented the Bend with his family when the actor/director’s great-grandmother, Carrie Freeman Tomlin, lived with the Auld family. My father hardly ever saw Ron Howard in a movie or television show without making the remark, "He's been on that road right out there!"). Merlene remembered the women and children being taken from the church service to safety at George and Hazel Goad’s home located southeast of the present home of Hubert and Charlotte Hutchens. She mentioned Geraldine Rice Forbes and her daughters sought safety, too, while the men began the search for the would-be thieves who had escaped.

                The article from The Fairfax Chief indicated several agencies, including Osage County, Fairfax and Pawnee police departments, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, searched until midnight and concluded the two desperados had escaped the area.

                Mother clearly recalled that spring evening. She was 31 years old and in her third trimester anticipating my birth. My parents and maternal grandparents lived on the place owned by Omer Jefferson, Jr. He had inherited it from his mother, Louise Butler Jefferson, the descendant of an Osage original allottee. The Jefferson land was located south across Big Bend Road from Mother's home today.

                In the early 1950s, my parents and grandparents responded to the need of workers at the newly-formed Masham Baptist Church. That March night, they returned from their Sunday evening service at Masham, only to be stopped at the east side of the Belford Bridge spanning the Arkansas River. Law officials alerted them to the robbery suspects on the loose in the Bend.

                Many residents were out on what is now Big Bend Road, the main artery into the Bend. The place they rented had been combed for Mr. Clark’s attacker. Soon my parents and grandparents were assured, following a thorough search, the perpetrators had left the area. Grandma, Gladys Rainey Smith, remained tense over the afternoon events, nevertheless they settled in for the evening.

                A little after midnight, the driver of the getaway car, evidently with a pang of concern for his younger partner in the crime, attempted to return to the Bend via the Belford Bridge, only to encounter the road block. He was detained by the Pawnee County law officials.

                Realizing the gunman was still at large in the Bend, the intense search resumed. According to Merlene’s notes, at 3:20 a.m., following a trail of blood, the officials discovered the would-be robber hiding in a ravine on the Jefferson place. His capture occurred a scant half-mile from my family’s dwelling where he was holed up in a cave on the bank of the dry creek bed. (Mother reiterated the location of his seizure was slightly south of the small WPA bridge located west of her present home. Were my father alive, he could take you to the precise spot of the robber's apprehension!)

                The Pawnee Chief reported the men were initially housed in the Fairfax jail and later transported to Osage County Jail in Pawhuska. Both had previous criminal records for similar offenses.

                The scripture condemns stealing. One of the verses that rings true for our society today is found in Ephesians 4:28.

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

I like this crystal-clear rendering of Ephesians 4:28 from The Message:

Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work. 

Other Blog Postings - Merlene and her family have been featured in other postings. Below are links to these:

https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/11/when-cotton-was-king.html

https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2017/08/only-two-names-will-do.html

https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-spokes-must-be-connected-to.html