The Killing of the Roff Brothers 

It was a violation of United States law to introduce liquor into the Indian Territory, but, this by no means stopped or substantially slowed down it's transport into the Nations.  Among the most notorious whiskey runners were the Wade Brothers, Ed Steine,  two Negro whiskey peddlers Dick Glass, George Mack and Franklin Pierce Roberts, aka, Frank Pierce.  Another notorious Negro whiskey peddler was Manual Patterson who lived at Cherokee Town on the Washita.  Patterson shot and killed one of the Ayres brothers who was a United States Marshal and died in the Ft. Smith jail.

Another real bad man was Bud Stevens who killed the Grayson County, TX Deputy Sheriff  Dallas Hodges.  Stevens took his wife and moved to Sorghum Flats on the Washita in the Arbuckle Mountains.  The brothers of Dallas Hodges found out where he was and went to arrest him.  Stevens heard of them coming for him and was waiting.  When the posse approached, he fired first and killed Babe Hodges and wounded a Mr. Coleman.  He made good his escape and went to the Negro community that was north of Berwyn on the Washita River.  Stevens took up with a young Negro man named Bully July who was of the same character as Stevens and soon they became pals.  

Stevens and July often went into the Arbuckle Mountains on whiskey runs and it was on one of these trips that July shot and killed Stevens for his property.  July then returned and told Mrs. Stevens that her husband was badly injured and was calling for her.  She went to the mountains with July where he killed her and threw her body into a deep cave.  The long absence of the Stevens from their home in Sorghum Flats did not arouse curiosity since it was well know that Stevens was a wanted man.  Everyone just figured that they moved on.

July, who peddled whiskey was betrayed by the illicit brew.  At a Negro picnic, he became intoxicated and told one of his friends named Loftus of the crime.  Loftus told others of the crime and July later killed Loftus for this lapse in candor.  But, the word was out and the law soon heard of it.  Officers found the cave and a man was lowered in the cave.  Just before he reached the bottom, he discovered the cave was a rattlesnake den.  He signaled for the men above to pull him up.  He secured a gun and returned into the pit.  He killed a large number of rattlesnakes and discovered Mrs. Stevens skeleton and her carpet bag containing her clothes.  Bully was arrested and taken to Ft. Smith were he was tried, convicted and hanged in 1882.

The preceding paragraphs show the toughness of the country and the violent nature of the outlaws in Chickasaw Nation.  But, there were good men in the Nation too.  Three of these were Jim, Andy and Alva Roff who owned the Roff Brothers  Ranch (700 Ranch) which was at the site of present day Ardmore, OK.  Jim Lee married a Chickasaw woman and that gave him the 'right' to ranch in the Nation.  The Lee Brothers had a ranch on the Red River near Delaware Bend just east of Thackerville about twenty miles south of the Roff Ranch.  The Lee ranch was located about twelve miles northwest of Delaware Bend on Cold Branch, a tributary of Caddo Creek. The Lee Ranch had become a 'hold' for bad men traveling through the area between Texas and the Chickasaw Nation.  Ed Stein, the Lee's brother in law, had a store across the Red River in Texas where he peddled most of the liquor that was shipped into the Chickasaw Nation.

Frank Pierce had moved into the Indian Territory from west Texas and settled in the vicinity of Johnsonville in the Chickasaw Nation.  He was a bootlegger and a cattle thief and was considered a very bad man.  While he was at Johnsonville, he killed Chub Moore, a Chickasaw man, but, was not convicted of the murder by reason of self defense.

The Roff Brothers had a ranch in the Arbuckle Mountains about 2 miles east of Berwyn.  One day in April of 1885, Jim Roff was in the mountains checking his cattle when he noticed a group of five or six men rounding up a small herd of cattle.  Jim rode toward them to see what was going on and the men rode off in a cloud of dust when they saw him approaching.  Jim checked the cattle brands and saw they were from a number of different smaller ranches that adjoined the Roff Ranch.  Some of the cattle belonged to a man named McColgin and others belonged to a man named Estes.  There were a number of 'off' brands also.  Roff hid in a nearby ravine and waited.  The rustlers returned and herded the cattle on south.  Roff went to his neighbors and told them what he had seen.  They decided to follow the men the next morning since it was now dusk.  The next morning they followed the cattle trail to Delaware Bend, right up to Stein's Store.  

When they rode up to the store, Jim and Pink Lee, Frank Pierce and Ed Stein came outside to meet them with Winchesters in their hands.  Stein asked them what they wanted.  Roff seeing that they were in trouble asked if they had seen a man pass with a span of black mules.  Roff decided it was not prudent to mention anything about cattle.  Roff, McCoglin and Estes went on to Gainesville, Texas and reported the incident to the county sheriff, a Mr. Hill.  

A plan was adopted and it was decided to go to Stein's Store and arrest the outlaws.  Sheriff Hill and a Deputy Ware who were unknown to the outlaws were to go to the store on pretense of buying something and the posse was to wait on the Indian Territory side for word from the sheriff.  On the given day and time, the posse, which included John Washington, Andy Roff and four or five Chickasaws were in position on the north side of Red River.  Sheriff Hill and his deputy went to Stein's store.  Frank Pierce met them in front with a Winchester in his hands and covered them.  The officers never made it into the store.  Instead they asked directions to Dexter and rode off.  When the posse never heard from the sheriff they sent a local man who traded  at the Stein store to go and check it out.  When he arrived at the store Frank Pierce told him to get in the store and stay there.  When the spy never returned, the posse decided it was time to go  see what was happening for themselves.  

On arrival at the store, Washington took position behind the building behind a rail fence.  Frank Pierce came out of the back door and walked across the lot.  Washington told him to "hold up" and Pierce told Washington "Hold up yourself" where he drew his pistol and fired at Washington, striking the rail fence and showering Washington with splinters.  Pierce quickly mounted his already saddled horse and rode toward the Red River.  Every member of the posse was firing at Pierce as he crossed the river and Pierce was firing back all the way.  On reaching the sand bar on the north side of the river, Pierce fell off his horse and collapsed, literally shot to pieces.

The posse recovered a number of cattle and returned them to the Chickasaw Nation and to their rightful owners.  The Lee Brothers were not at the store when Frank Pierce was killed.  When they heard of Pierce's death they were incensed and gathered a number of bad men at the Lee ranch on Cold Branch and rode to their hideout in the Yellow Hills east of Ardmore.

On the first day of  May in 1885, a desperate gun battle occurred southeast of the present day site of Ardmore.  This action cost the lives of four men early one morning and others eventually were added to the list when lawmen tried to arrest a gang of barricaded killers.  Sergeant Jim Guy, Chickasaw Indian Police and brother of Governor William Guy of the Chickasaw Nation, had a warrant for the arrest of Jim and Pink Lee as well as Della Humby, a Negro/Creek,  for the killing of his wife.  The Lee's along with Frank Pierce were wanted for stealing stock in the vicinity of the Arbuckle Mountains in the Chickasaw Nation and running them to the Lee Ranch and on into Texas near Stein's Store where they had ranch in Delaware Bend.  

Pierce was shot and killed a few days before in the gun battle at Stein's Store as he was attempting to flee across the Red River back into the Chickasaw Nation.  Andy Roff, one of the victims, advised against going after the Lee's since they were very violent and were not disposed to surrender peaceable.  Persuaded to go with Jim Guy were his brother Jim Roff, Billy Kirksey, "Windy" Johnson, and Emerson Folsom.

On the morning of May 1, 1885, Guy and his posse assembled at Henderson's Ferry on the Washita river about six miles south of Dougherty and about ten miles north of the Lee Ranch.  Here the posse was joined by Bob Scivally, a young rancher from Springer, to make the total of the posse about a dozen men.  They arrived at the Lee ranch at sunrise.  The ranch house was a two room log hut.  The house and been arranged so as to best repel an attack as it had port holes from which to shoot in every direction from the house.  A short distance from the house was a boggy branch creek where the posse found they could not cross with only Jim Roff's horse able to cross.  

The posse agreed to leave their horses there and approach on foot.  Johnson and Scivally were left as horse holders while the rest of the posse went onward.  Guy told the posse men that if the Lee's refused to surrender, they would withdraw.  As the posse approached the northeast corner of the house, Ed Steine, brother-in-law of the Lee's, opened the shutter and asked the posse what they wanted. Guy told Steine that he was a lawman and had a warrant for Jim and Pink Lee and for Della Humby.  He also had a warrant from Governor Wolfe of the Chickasaw Nation to cut the drift fence that the Lee's had illegally put around their ranch.  Guy advised the men inside the house to come out and surrender.

Steine told them to come to the front of the house and they would talk about it.  Guy and Folsom walked to the front of the house where Guy leaned his rifle against a large oak tree.  A second later a shot was fired from the house striking Guy and killing him instantly.  Supposedly this shot was fired by Humby.  (It should be noted here that Jim Guy had arrested Humby a few weeks earlier at Humby's brother's house.  Humby was very sick and Guy decided to leave Humby at his brother's house until he got better.  Guy told the brother to call for him when Humby got better and he would come and get him. The brother never did and Humby escaped.  This is possibly the reason for Humby firing the first shot at Guy.)  A few moments later a volley of fired rained upon the rest of the posse men with Jim Roff being killed instantly in the first volley.  Billy Kirksey died instantly with Jim Roff.  A severely wounded Andy Roff managed to crawl some distance to the safety of a large oak tree.  The posse scattered with some going to the tree line for shelter while others took cover in the creek bed.  Andy Roff was last seen alive in the shelter of the oak tree. After the shoot out, it was discovered that he was sitting against the tree and there were two more bullet holes in him, apparently execution shots by the Lee gang.  Andy Roff had powder burns around two bullet holes in his shirt.

It was believed that inside the house was Jim, Tom and Pink Lee, Ed Steine, Tom Cole, Jim Copeland, Della Humby and the Dyer brothers.  Shortly after this shootout, the Dyer brothers were lynched by a mob in Lamar County, Texas for killing the county sheriff.  Two days after the battle, a large  group of men came to the ranch and burned every building.  Alva Roff offered a large reward of $7,000 for the Lee's and Ed Steine, dead or alive.  Ed Steine and Jim Lee managed to make it to Denison, Texas where they surrendered and were sent to Ft. Smith for trial.  But influential friends, money and the ablest legal talent in the southwest got them acquitted.  Steine resumed his trade of a bootlegger and soon died there after.  Tom Lee was arrested on a charge of larceny and sent to the penitentiary.  The real leaders of the outlaw band were Jim and Pink Lee and were at large for two years before justice caught up with them.

Read the rest of the story in The Killing of the Lee Boys.

Contributed by Dennis Muncrief, March, 2002.

Reference: Chronicles of Oklahoma, "Early Days in the Chickasaw Nation" by Joe T. Roff, Vol. 2, pp. 180-187.

Joe T. Roff, the namesake of Roff, OK, was the brother of Jim, Andy and Alva Roff.