Rutherford, S. Morton

Surname Index
Updated: 28 Dec 2009

Daily Oklahoman, The
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
December 20, 1922, pg 6

Muskogee, Dec. 10 – Comrades when he was a U. S. Marshal, completely layered his bier with flowers, and messages of condolence to his widow from all over the United States testified at the funeral of S. Morton Rutherford here Tuesday of the esteem in which the former state senator was held.

The simple services of the Episcopal Church to which he belonged were used and the Knights of Templar formed the guard of honor. Joe Campbell of Oklahoma City represented governor-elect Walton and tendered the widow the sympathies of the Incoming administration of which Rutherford was expected to be an integral part until he was killed in an automobile accident here Saturday.

Rutherford led the Deputy U.S. Marshals [among them reliable Heck Thomas, Paden Tolbert and Bud Ledbetter] on August 10, 1895 as they finally caught up with the Rufus Buck Gang outside Muskogee, Oklahoma by a combined force of U.S. Deputy Marshals and the Creek Lighthorse police, led by Marshal S. Morton Rutherford on August 10th. The ensuing gunfight between the lawmen and the outlaws lasted almost a full day, before the teens finally surrendered. Though the Creek wanted to hold the gang for trial, the U.S. marshals prevailed and the outlaws were taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas to face “Hanging” Judge Isaac Parker. They came to trial, The verdict was guilty. Parker sentenced them to death - a sentence he was to pronounce only once more before his court was abolished.

Samuel Morton Rutherford ^b was born at Goochland Court House, Goochland, Virginia, March 31, 1797, son of Archibald Hamilton Rutherford and his wife, Margaret Massey Parrish, and at age of 12 years his family removed to Gallatin, Tenn., and at age of 17 he enlisted in Col. Ralston's Tennessee Volunteers and fought in the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. He came to Arkansas Territory in 1817, and was sheriff of Clark county for a number of years and later of Pulaski county, and elected from Pulaski county to the lower House of the legislature in 1831 and 1833, appointed by the president register of the land office at Little Rock in 1835; and in 1836 presidential elector on the democratic ticket and also in 1840, and established trading posts in the Indian Territory, first at the mouth of the Verdigris River; and appointed special agent for the Choctaws, and superintendent of Indian Affairs in the western territory, with his residence at Scullyville. In 1849, after inauguration of President Taylor, he resigned and removed to Fort Smith. In 1859 he was appointed member of the commission to treat with the Seminole Indians in Florida, and arrangements effected for removal of Seminoles to the Indian Territory, and he became their chief government agent and lived during such incumbency at Wewoka, and continued in this office until the beginning of the Civil War, and while he was too old for active military service, two of his sons as volunteers became loyal soldiers in the Confederate States Army, Robert B. and Thomas Allen Rutherford.

He married Eloise Beall of Kentucky, to whom came the following children: Robert B., Margaret, Mary Eloise, Samuel Morton (Physician at Seagoville, Tex.), Frances (married William Tilghman Cline), and Thomas F. Margaret married H. M. C. Brown and died at Fort Arbuckle, 1858, no children; Mary Eloise married William M. Cravens (by order issued by Lt. Gen. E. Kirby Smith, C. S. A., assigned to duty on staff in the second Indian Division [Choctaws and Chickasaws], District of Indian Territory, June 30, 1864, and signed roster as acting assistant Adjutant General, 21st Ark. Regt., Provisional Army, C. S. A., from Arkansas, taking such rank from Feb. 19, 1864), and to them came the following children, Jerry and Ben, who at the time of his death was a member of Congress; Richard, who was a Colonel in regular army, dead with interment in Arlington Cemetery, Washington, D. C.; Duval, Daisy, and Rutherford. Robert B. Rutherford (Circuit Judge, Fort Smith) married Sallie Wallace Butler and to them came the following children: Jenny married William Smith; Samuel Morton married Sallie Dillard (U. S. Marshal, Northern Dist., Ind. Terr., and State Senator at time of death, with interment at Muskogee, Okla.); William Butler died at Magazine, Ark.; Emmalise married Andrew Dowd; Robert, circuit clerk, Sebastian County; Ethelyn married Robert Faulkner; Raymond Perry (Checotah, Okla.) married Edna Lipscomb. Said Samuel Morton Rutherford married Sallie Dillard and to them came the following children: Helen, who married Ross Loomis, one son, Ross Rutherford Loomis; Jane, who married Wallace Gallagher; John Dillard, unmarried; and Samuel Morton of Tulsa, Okla. (State Senator) who married Dema Barton, with two children, Samuel Morton and a daughter, Sallie. To Emmalise Rutherford Dowd and Andrew Dowd came the following children: Wallace Rutherford Dowd, commander in the United States Navy, and Larry Scales Dowd, with a child named Peggy.

Sources: good faith fair use of sources stated above

Compiled, transcribed and submitted by Marti Graham, Oklahoma County, OKGenWeb Coordinator, December 2009. Information posted for educational purposes for viewers and researchers. The contributor is not related to nor researching any of the above.

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