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JAMES MADISON ENNIS
Vol. 3, p. 1222
Book has photo

James Madison ENNIS, now postmaster at Antlers has for years been
one of the best known public characters in the old Choctaw Nation.
His record is especially interesting for his long service as a deputy
United States marshal.

The last man executed under the tribal laws of the Choctaw Nation,
says Mr. Ennis, was William GOING a member of the tribe by blood and
a baseball player of considerable prominence. He was shot in 1898, by
Sheriff Tom WATSON of Nashoba County at Alikchi, the old Court Town
of the Third Judicial District of the Choctaw Nation, after having
been convicted of murder of Ishtimihoke, a Choctaw woman, whom Going
thought was practicing arts of witchcraft upon him.

The execution occurred about the time Congress gave its approval of
Atoka Agreement, and the passage of the Curtis Act, which abrogated
the Choctaw Government to a great extent and deprived its Court of
jurisdiction to try cases.

The attorneys for Going made application to Judge CLAYTON, United
States judge for the Central District of the Indian Territory, which
included the territory in which the Going case was tried, for a writ
of habeas corpus, to stop the execution of Going, Judge Clayton heard
the case heard the case and after a thorough investigation decided
that he had no jurisdiction to interfere in the matter, and delivered
Going to the Choctaw authorities. The judge of the Choctaw District
Court resentenced Going and about the time for the execution an
effort was made in Antlers to forestall the execution, and telegrams
were sent to Judge THOMAS that Judge Clayton was out of the district
and that Going was going to be unlawfully executed. Judge Thomas upon
said telegrams issued an order staying the execution until the matter
could be investigated, and sent the order to Antlers by telegram; the
telegram was conveyed to the Choctaw authorities at Alikchi on the
day set for the execution.

When this telegram was taken before the Choctaw judge he declined to
be controlled by the order of Judge Thomas, saying that Judge Clayton
had decided that the United States courts had no jurisdiction in the
case and decided to let the Choctaw law and judgement of the court be
enforced. Abner CLAY, an educated and brilliant young Choctaw was
district attorney. He told the court that in his opinion the
execution should proceed. Shortly before 2 o'clock on the execution
day, Going was stripped to the waist and made to kneel on a blanket
spread on the ground. His heavy irons having been removed in the
jail, he walked down between the lines of men to the site of the
execution. Every safeguard was placed around the execution, for Going
had the reputation of being a desperate man. When he had knelt a
medicine man of the Choctaws painted a black spot on his left chest,
supposedly over his heart, a deputy sheriff held each hand and
Sheriff Watson, thirty paces away, after careful aim fired his
Winchester. The ball hit the center of the painted spot and passed
through the Indian's body. Going threw up his hands and fell
backward, but he was not dead. Sallie DURANT, an Indian woman,
recalling similar occurrences of earlier years, suggested the use of
water to complete the death job, and the suspicion has since been
current would not have died had it not been for the use of water.

Warrants were issued at Antlers charging the sheriff, the
prosecuting attorney and clerk with violation of the order of Judge
Thomas, and James Madison Ennis, then deputy United States marshal
under Col. John CARROLL at Fort Smith, was charged with their arrest.
Sheriff WATSON came to Antlers and surrendered and the others were
brought in. Charges against them were dismissed when it was learned
that Judge Clayton was yet in his district when the order was issued
by Judge Thomas. This fact invalidated the order. Judge Thomas was
killed in 1914 by prisoners in the State Penitentiary at McAlester
during an uprising of convicts. At the time Judge Thomas was sitting
in the office of the warden.

The experiences of Mr. Ennis as an officer in the Choctaw Nations
cover a wide range of activities, and embrace many interesting
features of life in those days. During the four years that he was
deputy marshal 19 commissioned officers were killed and many were
wounded. Mr. Ennis was wounded once. This wound came at the hands of
Will MEEKS, who was charged with horse stealing and whom Ennis
located at a dance near Red River. Meeks fired when Ennis entered the
room while a dance was in progress. Meeks, however, did not escape
but was arrested by Ennis and taken to Fort Smith. He was the first
man ever to be granted a new trial by United States Judge PARKER at
Fort Smith, and on second trial he was acquitted.

The territory embraced in the district covered by Mr. Ennis as
marshal was that of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. There were
numerous cases of murder and theft and several of those arrested by
Mr. Ennis on these charges were hanged at Fort Smith. So vigilant and
vigorous were his activities that many organized bands of thieves
were broken up summarily. An interesting case in his experience
indicates the distinction between federal and tribal laws of that
period. At Fort Towson a merchandise store owned by J. ROSENTHAL, an
intermarried citizen, was burglarized by Indians, whom Mr. Ennis
arrested and took to Fort Smith. There the Federal Court disclaimed
jurisdiction in such a case. The Indians were returned to the Choctaw
country, but could not prosecuted under tribal laws because Rosenthal
had not complied with the law in the matter of obtaining a license
when he was married to an Indian woman.

Goodland was the official headquarters of Mr. Ennis and prisoners
were transported to Fort Smith by wagon, such a trip and return
sometimes requiring sixty days. During his service, John MCALESTER
was killed at Purcell, John PHILLIPS was killed in the Creek Nation
and Posseman WILLIAMS was killed in the Chickasaw Nation. These were
among the best known and bravest officers of Indian Territory.

Mr. Ennis recalls the killing of Frank DALTON, a deputy marshal,
near Fort Smith in Indian Territory. His murderer was a boy eighteen
years old, a member of a band of horse thieves. This boy was the only
one of the band left after Dalton and Jim COE had fired into their
tent, and Dalton was shot through the head after he had emptied his
Winchester and was trying to release the hung trigger of his
revolver. The boy escaped and was followed by Ed STOKELY and Bill
MOODY to the vicinity of Stringtown, Indian Territory, where he was
over taken. Refusing to surrender, he was fired upon. He fell after
the first fire and when Stokely advanced to him the lad raised
himself up and put a ball through the officer's heart. This daring
young desperado later surrendered to Moody and was taken in a wagon
to Stringtown with the body of Stokely, but died about the time the
party reached Stringtown.

Most of the troubles of that period were brought on by white men, is
the mature opinion and judgement of Mr. Ennis, who can recite almost
any amount of evidence to support his opinion. As a rule the Indians
were peaceable and law abiding. In fact Mr. Ennis classes them a
among the best people in the world in the matter of obedience to law.

James Madison Ennis was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, November
8, 1862, a son of John C. and Parthena (HUGHEY) Ennis. There is one
other son, R. A. Ennis, who is an intermarried Choctaw citizen and
lives at Haworth. When James M. Ennis was quite young his parents
removed to Texas, and his father died in Abilene in that state in
1880. The public schools of his native state and of Texas gave him
his education, and he also spent four years in a private school in
Huntsville, Alabama. For a time his home was at Clarksville, Texas,
where he entered the employ of H. HERMAN of New York as a timber
buyer in the Choctaw Nation. Mr Herman had a sawmill at Herman's
Point in Towson County, and the buying range covered territory along
Red, Little and Kiamichi rivers. Besides prosecuting his business as
a timber buyer Mr. Ennis also owned a general merchandise store just
over the river from Bon Ton, a noted place of the South Choctaw
country. Later he entered the employ of the government, and
subsequently for twenty years was a farmer and stockman near Antlers.
He still has some valuable farm land near that town, and has some
livestock interests which require part of his attention.

On June 16, 1913, he was appointed postmaster at Antlers by
President Wilson, succeeding C. E. ARCHER. Mr. Ennis is a member of
the Masonic Order, affiliating with the lodge, Chapter and Commandery
at Antlers, the Scottish Rite Consistory at Hugo and the Temple of
the Mystic Shrine at Muskogee. At Fort Smith, Arkansas, in October,
1893, he married Miss Effie BASHAM.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Paul Grose, February 13, 1999.