Fort Smith Double Hanging of July 23, 1886

Calvin James and Lincoln Sprole were hanged together at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) on July 23, 1886, for murders committed in the Indian Territory.

In late July 1885, three Black men—Calvin James, Henry Reuben (sometimes referred to as Robey), and Albert Kemp—who lived near Tishomingo in the Chickasaw Nation left their homes to go to Texas. They were joined by Tony Love at Thompson’s Ferry on the Red River. Love acquired four gallons of whiskey, and the men returned to the Indian Territory on August 1, 1885, with Kemp and Reuben riding ahead of James and Love. The first two heard a gunshot and turned around to see Love slumped over his horse and bleeding, James having shot him “for no reason, it is assumed, but to rob him of his whisky, which he took.”

When Love’s horse returned home without him, his father went looking for him and apparently notified law enforcement officers, who soon arrested James, Reuben, and Kemp. The three men were taken to Fort Smith, and the Arkansas Gazette reported that they “do not deny the killing, but each tries to lay it on the other.” The other two testified against James at his April 1, 1886, trial, and he was convicted of first-degree murder, “the jury rendering the verdict within ten minutes after the case was given into their hands.”

Lincoln Sprole, described as a “peaceable and quiet man,” farmed land at Paul’s Valley in the Chickasaw Nation near the farm of Benjamin Clark and his son Alexander, age eighteen, both of whom reportedly had violent tempers. Sprole and the Clarks had a “falling out about a bolt to a cultivator,” and they became enemies. On May 30, 1885, Sprole opened fire on them as they rode in a wagon, shooting the father in the chest and then shooting the son in the knee when he jumped from the wagon, firing on him again as he lay on the ground. Benjamin Clark died six hours later, and Alexander died after seventeen days. Both identified Sprole as their assailant.

Sprole fled to his mother’s home in Butler County, Kansas, where he was arrested and taken to Fort Smith. He was convicted of both killings in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas on April 6, 1886. On April 30, 1886, Judge Isaac Parker sentenced James, Sprole, Blue Duck, and Kit Ross to hang on July 23, 1886. Blue Duck received a presidential commutation to life in prison, and Ross got a two-week respite—he would hang on August 6, 1886.

As the pair sat in jail awaiting hanging, James was reportedly “in bad health and may die before the day of execution arrives. He prays day and night, and says he is ready to stand before the judgement bar of Him who doeth all things well, with favorable chances of salvation.” Father Lawrence Smythe would baptize Sprole into the Catholic church, and the Reverend A. J. Phillips baptized James into the African Methodist Episcopal church on the night before their deaths.

On the morning of July 23, 1886, “the condemned men took the matter with unusual indifference up to the hour of being taken from jail.” After they changed into the new suits in which they would be hanged, Sprole was “moved to tears as…he bade the inmates of the jail farewell, and many of them also shed tears. James appeared unmoved.”

As they walked toward the gallows, James was “so weak that his attendants had to support him to some extent.” Once on the platform, Smythe “conducted brief religious exercises with Sprole, while Rev. Phillips attended to James.” Then, at 1:35 p.m., since “neither of the condemned had anything to say the ropes were forthwith adjusted, the black caps drawn, the trap sprung and the bodies dropped six feet, both necks being broken.” They were buried in Fort Smith’s Oak Cemetery.

For additional information:
Akins, Jerry. Hangin’ Times in Fort Smith: A History of Executions in Judge Parker’s Court. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2012.

“An Awful Crime.” Fort Worth Daily Gazette, July 24, 1886, p. 6.

“Fort Smith.” Arkansas Gazette, June 22, 1886, p. 4.

“Fort Smith.” Arkansas Gazette, September 5, 1885, p. 1.

“Fort Smith, Ark.” Arkansas Gazette, April 2, 1886, p. 3.

“Fort Smith, Ark.” Arkansas Gazette, April 7, 1886, p. 3.

“Gallows Timber,” Arkansas Democrat, April 30, 1886, p. 1.

Riley, Michael Owen. “Capital Punishment in Oklahoma: 1835–1966.” PhD diss., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2012. Online at https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/518/ (accessed December 4, 2025).