Aaron Wilson (Execution of)

On April 21, 1876, an African American man named Aaron Wilson was executed at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) for the murder of a Kansas man and his twelve-year-old son in the autumn of 1875. The victims, James Harris and John Franklin Harris, were traveling across Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to Texas with a load of goods to be used in a new store there. Little is known about Wilson, except for this description in the April 21, 1876, edition of the Arkansas Gazette, which portrayed Wilson as “a man of herculean strength, as black as night….He is of ordinary size, and to all appearances similar to the common cotton-field darkey. He has traveled considerably, is quite intelligent, can read well.” He had reportedly been discharged from the army in Indian Territory and had been living with some members of the Penateka, the Southern band of the Comanche tribe. When they were removed from Texas to Oklahoma in 1859, they were assigned to the Wichita Agency.

On September 21, 1875, Harris and his son left Fort Sill to begin their journey to Texas. As they were setting up camp one night, Wilson approached them, asking for food and to stay overnight. Harris agreed, but during the night Wilson allegedly killed him with an axe and shot Harris’s son as he was fleeing. He then took the wagon and horses as well as all the food, arms, and goods inside and returned to the village and offered some of the spoils to tribal members. According to the Gazette, tribal members, “bad and wicked as they are,” were appalled by the crime and reported Wilson to authorities at Fort Sill. A lieutenant and a group of cavalrymen rode to the scene, where they found the bodies. Wilson was arrested by a U.S. marshal and taken to Fort Smith to await trial.

According to the Dallas Daily Record, Wilson was convicted of the crime on January 11, 1876. Sentencing was set for February 5, and because he was being sentenced with five other men, four of them Native American and one of them white, a large number of people from the area attended the sentencing. All the prisoners were given the death penalty and were to be hanged on April 21. Jerry Akins, quoting the February 9 edition of the Fort Smith New Era, noted that Wilson was impassive during his sentencing. When questioned, he stated that he had applied for a number of witnesses who failed to appear, and that he was innocent of the charges. He also declared that he “would risk death by being shot attempting to escape rather than by hanging.” The Memphis Public Ledger later declared that “Arkansas, or that portion of it known as the Indian Nation, seems not to be in a civilized state, unless, according to a learned European scientist, you confess that the gallows is the emblem of civilization.”

In the days before the execution, in anticipation of what the Van Buren Press described as a “carnival of hanging,” people began gathering “from all quarters,” and the roads were “thronged with comers.” It is estimated that between 6,000 and 7,000 spectators gathered in Fort Smith to witness the mass execution. The convicted men spent the morning of April 21 with their spiritual advisers. The execution proceeded as usual, with the men brought to the gallows and the sentences read, followed by brief religious exercises. According to the Gazette, “The stoic Indians, the negro and the white man, all appear to be unconscious that the day of their death is so near at hand. In truth they, for some time, have expressed a perfect willingness to die.” The trap was sprung at 11:45 a.m., and according to the Press, “Everything passed off quietly and orderly, nothing transpiring to mar the solemnity of the occasion.”

For additional information:
Akins, Jerry. “Hangin’ Times in Fort Smith.” Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society 26 (September 2002): 4–9. Online at https://uafslibrary.com/fshsj/26-02_Complete_Issue.pdf (accessed June 25, 2024).

“A Carnival of Hanging.” Van Buren Press, April 25, 1876, p. 3.

“Conviction.” Dallas Daily Record, January 13, 1876, p. 1.

Corbett, W. P. “Oklahoma’s Highways: Indian Trails to Urban Expressways.” PhD diss., Oklahoma State University, 1982. Online at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/215256989.pdf (accessed June 25, 2024).

“Hanged.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 22, 1876, p. 5.

“Hanging Day.” Arkansas Gazette,” April 21, 1876, p. 1.

“Ledger Lines.” Memphis Public Ledger, February 17, 1876, p. 3.

Nancy Snell Griffith
Davidson, North Carolina