Samuel W. Fooy (Execution of)

On September 3, 1875, a Native American man named Samuel W. Fooy was among the first six men to be executed in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) under “hanging judge” Isaac Parker. Fooy was convicted of robbing and killing a Kansas schoolteacher in Indian Territory several years earlier.

Sam Fooy was born in Sebastian County in 1849. He was part Cherokee; his father was James E. Fooy of Memphis, Tennessee, and his mother was named Mary Ann. Sam married Amanda Talitha Beattie, and by 1872 they were living near Webbers Falls in the Cherokee Nation (in present-day Oklahoma). At the time of Fooy’s death, they had three children. An 1875 article in the Arkansas Gazette described him as “well educated and rather talkative.”

The murder of the schoolteacher, John Emmett Naff, was not the first crime in which Fooy was involved. An undated complaint in the criminal case files in Fort Smith indicates that he assaulted a white man named Bill Heaton in Indian Territory, but the case was later dismissed as self-defense. In the years between Naff’s death and Fooy’s trial, Fooy was accused of selling twenty gallons of liquor in Indian Territory without paying taxes on it. An arrest warrant was issued in January 1874, but Fooy could not be found. Another arrest warrant, dated October 1874, alleged that Fooy had murdered a white man named Fenton the previous March. Fooy was taken into custody on October 31, but there is no information on the disposition of the case.

In July 1872, after having closed up school at Tahlequah, Naff stopped to spend the night at the home of Captain C. R. Stephenson, whose wife was Fooy’s sister. Also there were Fooy and Wilburn Beattie (or Batey), who was married to Fooy’s sister Alice. Testimony indicated that it was common for travelers to stop at the Stephensons’ for the night. In the morning, Naff was asked to pay fifty cents for his stay. He had been paid $250 for his teaching but had nothing smaller than a $5 bill and said he would go to the store at the nearby saltworks to have it changed and would leave the fifty cents there. Fooy accompanied him. Apparently Naff decided not to pay for his stay, and Fooy allegedly murdered him and robbed him of his earnings. A year later, a body and belongings were found under a bluff along the Illinois River, and later some books Fooy had buried nearby led to the body being identified as Naff’s.

Fooy was arrested and was arraigned on April 19, 1875, before the commissioner of the Western District of Arkansas. At the arraignment, Wilburn Beattie testified that Fooy had told him about the murder, swearing him to secrecy. He took Beattie to where the body was and showed him where he had buried the books under a rock. Beattie also saw the bones a second time in 1874 after Daniel Roach came upon them while running some hogs along the river. Fooy was bound over for trial at the May/June term of the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Arkansas.

The trial was long and complicated. On May 3, Fooy’s lawyer said that he could not safely go to trial because two material witnesses who had been subpoenaed were absent. One was William Spaniard, who was to testify that the bones found were actually those of his brother. The other, Martin Adkins, was expected to say that the remains were at the foot of the bluff before Naff was allegedly murdered. Fooy had no funds to pay for the procurement of these witnesses and asked for a continuance. A new subpoena was issued on May 13, this time with the court assuming the costs, but the witnesses could not be found. On May 24, June 11, and June 15, Fooy requested funds to find several other witnesses. Two of these, Martha Keys and Pierce Foreman, were expected to testify that the shotgun wound to Naff’s head was inflicted after his death.

The defense also maintained that Fooy’s original indictment was not valid because it did not come from the regular grand jury but from a special grand jury that was convened later. In addition, this second jury was made up of jurors living only near Fort Smith, and not from the whole district. All of these attempts failed, and on June 28, 1875, Fooy was sentenced to hang. On June 26, Fooy again filed an appeal, which was denied.

In a poignant footnote to the trial, the Arkansas Gazette reported on July 16, 1875, that the sheriff of Sebastian County had received a letter from John H. Naff of Jonesboro, Tennessee. In it, Naff sought information for his “distressed family” about his son’s murder: “I learn that Sam’l Fooy committed murder on him in July, 1872 and today is the first news of the sad event. I learn that the criminal is to suffer death by law for the offense. My son was a school teacher in eastern Kansas. I repeat the request that you will favor me.”

Sam Fooy was hanged along with five other men in Fort Smith on September 3, 1875. These five were Daniel Evans, James Moore, John Whittington, Smoker Mankiller, and Edward Campbell. According to a September 4 article in the Arkansas Gazette, the execution “passed off very quietly,” and the condemned “showed the same nerve which has characterized them since their sentence. Not one of them made a confession….Fooy said that he was as anxious to go as the spectators were to see him go….The exhortation of pious ministers were not in vain, and Sam looked forward with hope in Jesus.” Sam Fooy’s body was turned over to his mother. On September 11, the court demanded $785.70 from Fooy’s estate to cover expenses, but no property was found.

For additional information:
“The Fatal Trap.” Arkansas Gazette, September 4, 1875, p. 1.

“State News.” Arkansas Gazette, July 16, 1875, p. 4.

Nancy Snell Griffith
Davidson, North Carolina