Simpson E. Stilwell

Simpson Everett Stilwell (August 18, 1850 – February 24, 1903) was a United States Army Scout, Deputy U.S. Marshal, police judge, and U.S. Commissioner in Oklahoma during the American Old West. He served in Major George A. Forsyth's company of scouts when it was besieged during the Battle of Beecher Island by Indian Cheyenne Chief Roman Nose and was instrumental in bringing relief to the unit.

Early life

Stilwell was raised near Baldwin, Kansas. His parents were William "Henry" Stilwell and Charlotte B. "Sarah" Winfrey. He had a younger brother, Frank Stilwell, who was killed at age 26 by Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp.

In the mid-1850s the Stilwells moved to Baldwin City or Palmyra Township, Douglas County, Kansas, where they took a land claim. In 1863 William and Charlotte divorced and William left with the three boys, Jack, Millard and Frank. Charlotte took the girls Elizabeth and Mary. William joined Company B, 18th Missouri Infantry for a time during the Civil War.

In 1863, at 14 years old, Simpson's parents sent him to fetch water from the family well. He left for Kansas City instead, where he joined a wagon train bound for Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory. He traveled between New Mexico, Kansas City, and Leavenworth several times, spending the winters in New Mexico.

On the morning of September 10, Forsyth's troops at Fort Wallace received information that Cheyenne Indians had attacked a freighter's train east of Ft Wallace. The soldiers set out at dawn to find the hostile Indians. The scouts trailed the Indian raiding party from Sheridan, Indian Territory into Colorado; signs indicated that the opposing force considerably outnumbered the scouts, but the unit nonetheless pressed on.

The detachment went into camp on the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River. General Forsyth anticipated trouble and posted a watch. At dawn the Scouts were attacked by a large party of Cheyennes under the leadership of Roman Nose. Surrounded, the men took cover and dug in on a sand bar in the dry riverbed.

At around midnight on the first day of battle, Forsyth said, "Some one must go to Wallace for assistance." Stilwell volunteered and said he would choose a man to go with him. Forsyth tore the fly leaf out of his daybook, wrote a note to Col. Bankhead at Ft. Wallace, and gave it to Stilwell. The scouts were discharged at Fort Wallace on October 5, 1868. Stilwell remained a scout for the army for a length of time.

Guides Kansas Volunteers

Samuel Johnson Crawford was elected Governor of Kansas and served from 1865 to 1868. He was unable to receive the support he'd hoped for from the federal government, who was still shipping arms to the Indians in keeping with several treaties.

After receiving constant appeals for aid, on November 4, 1868, Governor Crawford resigned as governor and was appointed Colonel of a newly recruited regiment, the 1200 strong Nineteenth Kansas Volunteers. General Sheridan gave Crawford instructions to rendezvous with General George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry at Camp Supply, near the point of the Wold and Beaver Rivers. Custer was under orders to proceed to the Washita River, the winter encampment of Indians.

General Sheridan had sent two guides to lead Colonel Crawford through. Jack Stilwell and either William "Apache Bill" Seamans or Pierre Trudeau Shortly afterward 600 of their horses were somehow stampeded and they lost 100 of the valuable horses. The situation got worse when the men got lost in a blizzard in the Cimarron Canyon and finally began reaching Camp Supply on November 28. to upwards of 140 Indians at the Battle of Washita River, capturing 53 women and children, while losing only one officer in the fight around the Indian village. Simpson soon learned of his brother's death and went west with hopes of avenging his brother's death. However, he soon returned without doing so. He returned to Indian Territory where he became a Deputy U.S. Marshal headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Becomes U.S. Marshal

In 1887 (actually was commissioned by the Northern District of Texas first in 1885 and then by the District of Kansas about 1887), Stilwell became a Deputy U.S. Marshall in Darlington, Oklahoma during the period when Oklahoma was opened up for settlement. He soon became a police judge at El Reno, Oklahoma about away. In March 1894, Stilwell was a witness in the case The United States vs. The State of Texas which determined Greer County was within the borders of Oklahoma Territory. A few years later he returned to Anadarko where he was appointed U.S. Commissioner. He was admitted to the bar and practiced law.

On May 2, 1895, in Braddock, Pennsylvania, he married Esther Hannah White. In 1898, Stilwell was invited by longtime friend William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody to move to his ranch near Cody, Wyoming. Stilwell watched over Cody's interests while he toured with his Wild West shows. Stilwell owned a small ranch on the South Fork of the Shoshone River, where he died of Bright's disease in 1903. He was buried near Cody, Wyoming.