Artesia, New Mexico

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1845-1876

Benjamin Franklin Jones was born on the 18^th of July 1845, probably just before the family’s emigration to Indian Territory. Benjamin was the second child of four children born to John L. Jones and Sophia Brashear. The Jones Family arrived in Indian Territory at Fort Coffee with the Itoonla’s Choctaw Indian party of Sixtowns on 12 February 1847. Benjamin and his brother, Charles, would have been young boys at the time. The record of their arrival is on file in the Choctaw Emigration Records, 1831-1856, Vol. II. James Thompson, a Choctaw official, also records the family’s arrival at Fort Coffee by boat in a story. The story told is in regards to their passage payment and debarkation. “I think it was the winter of 1847 that John L. Jones landed at Fort Coffee. There was a great deal of trouble about them getting off the boat, in regards to their passage fees. Mrs. John L. Jones, mother of Benjamin Jones, went to a lock box, unlocked it, got out a bag of money and paid the passage fees to the clerk of the boat. The Jones Family was the only Indians that got off the boat at the time mentioned.”

 There is not much known of Benjamin’s early years as a child, but according to history books, life was not easy for the Choctaws in their new home. The Jones Family settled in the Mooshalatubbe District, around Skullyville, which was fifteen miles from Ft. Smith, Arkansas. The first BIA building was built in this area to be the center of Government activities. Here, annuity payments were made to the Choctaws who settled in the Arkansas country, and because they received their money at this place they called it “iskuliville” or Moneytown.

 It is believed that Benjamin’s father, John L., died sometime around 1850/1851. Records show Sophia, his mother, married Amos Goins after John’s death and then married Sampson Moncrief in 1854 after Goins died. A story in the Indian Pioneer Papers by Joseph Moncreif, Benjamin’s half bother gives us a glance at what life was like in those times. ”The Comanche and the Apaches were petty bad. My mother, Sophia, had taken us children many a time and had ran and hidden with us”.

 Early in 1869 Benjamin married Jennie, a Cherokee Indian. Their first child, Mary Ellen, was born on 4 Oct 1869. Benjamin and Jennie had four children, Mary Ellen, Aran Rebecca, Frances M. and Benjamin Franklin Jr. Benjamin’s family was considered a prominent and respected Choctaw family in the Territory. In the “Chronicles of Oklahoma” Volume 12, Number 4, Benjamin’s second daughter, Aran Rebecca, is referred to in her marriage to John P. Connors. Aran married Lewis Cook, an intermarried white man, on 19 Oct 1886 at the age of 16, but was widowed at the time of her second marriage to Judge Connors. The article is about the first court house built in Pittsburg County and its presiding Judge, J.P. Connors.  “After the first Mrs. Connors died in 1893 Judge Connors married Mrs. Aran Jones Cook, of a prominent Choctaw family”. We also find a second reference in the Necrologies of the Chronicles of Oklahoma to Aran Jones Cook being the daughter of Benjamin Jones. “Mr. Connors second wife being Mrs. Aran Cook, daughter of Benjamin Jones, a Choctaw whose wife was Cherokee.”

 All of Benjamin’s children married and were enrolled with their children on the Dawes Final Rolls as Choctaw.  Mary Ellen Jones, Benjamin’s eldest daughter, married Charles Ruthruff at the age of 16 years old. After the death of Charles, Mary Ellen married William Arndt a respected white man who was a farmer in the McAlester area. Frances married Amasa Watson and Benjamin Jr. was married to Rebecca J.

 B. F. Jones appears in the pay records for Skullyville County in 1869. The payment of $4.00 was recorded on July 6 1869 for B.F. Jones, special deputy sheriff. Later Benjamin was elected as Sheriff of Tobucksy County, Indian Territory. He was considered a lighthorsemen under the old Choctaw Court law. “Ben Jones, my half brother was sheriff under the Indian law, but the old Indian Courts did not call them Deputy or Sheriff, they called them Lighthorsemen”. (Joseph Moncreif). In accordance with the treaties with the United States, the Light Horsemen was a unit of lawmen chosen to uphold the law in the Indian Nations. Many times they were the Judge, Jury and Executioner. They were also tax collectors, immigration officers and revenue agents. They were known for their fairness and ability to ride and to shoot. “Although the light horsemen were never know to commit an atrocity of any kind, they were feared by Indian and white alike for the ferocity and tenacity in pursuit of their duty,” The Indian Policemen by Art Burton. Some documents indicate these lawmen worked through the Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, while others worked with the old Indian Courts. We find Sheriff B.F. Jones listed in some County Court Records for January and April 1876. The records are written in Choctaw, but they had to do with issue of warrants. 

 Benjamin was shot and killed on the 13^th  or 20^th , (depending which record you read), of September, 1876 by an adopted citizen, an intermarried white man of the Choctaw Nation. His name was Robert Ream(s). In the newspaper articles of the time, Ream(s) claimed self defense because he had heard Sheriff Jones was out to kill him on sight. The Indian Journal, 21 Sept 1876, page 3, column 5 and Cherokee Advocate, 23 Sept.1876, page 3, column 2. Ream(s) shot Benjamin with a shotgun from a distance of fifty feet, though a window at McAlester Station. It is also reported that as Sheriff Jones fell to the floor “other shots were fired into his body and head from revolvers in the hands of others.” 

 This was a very dangerous time in Indian Territory and it is well recorded that McAlester Station was a hang out for many ex Quantrill members, the Confederate Raiders who in history burned and pillaged towns in Kansas and Missouri during the Civil War. Many of the members became outlaws and operated out of Indian Territory and Texas after the war. Early in the year of 1876, Chief Coleman Cole of the Choctaw Nation, an old fashion Choctaw who did not trust the white men of the time, fought to protect the Choctaw’s rights to the land and the rights to the coal being mined from their land. This situation grew until Chief Cole issued a death warrant, “kill on sight”, for three intermarried white men, James J. McAlester, Dr. D.M. Hailey and Robert Ream(s), and two Indians, Tandy Walker and Bill Pusley. This encounter is documented in the “Chronicles of Oklahoma” Volume 11, Number 2, an interview with J.J. McAlester on June 1933 and Volume 14 Number1, a recorded story from Chief Colman Cole, March 1936.

 The men mentioned above were able to make their escape to the neighboring Chickasaw Nation after being warned of the warrants. They later sent men, ex Quantrill men, to threaten Chief Cole with bodily harm if any of the accused men were killed or harmed. It would be Chief Cole’s head that would hang from the fence post. The timing of these death warrants and the facts of the incident differs in each article and in other documents because the recorded stories are given by opposing factions. However, the dispute does occur around the time of the shooting of Sheriff B. F. Jones. 

 As we can see, the same Robert Ream(s) who shot Sheriff Jones was also involved in the dispute with the Choctaw Nation and Chief Colman. A question might be, just who were the “others” with revolvers in their hands that shot Sheriff Jones as he fell to the floor? It was reported at the time of the shooting that there had been difficultly between these men and Sheriff Jones and a “fatal termination was not unexpected to one or more of them.” One family story traditionally told regarding the shooting of Benjamin Jones, was that it was because of a political dispute. Benjamin was arriving for a meeting with the individuals in question when he was ambushed and shot in the face as he was entering the room. He had even laid down his revolver for a fair meet.

  Benjamin is one of the sixty original inductees to the Honor Roll of Fallen Law Enforcement Officer in Indian Territory and Oklahoma. He is inscribed on the Memorial located at the Indian Police Academy in Artesia, NM. His name can also be found as an Indian Police Officer on the Oklahoma Peace Officers Memorial for police officers killed in the line of duty. This Memorial is located in Oklahoma City, OK. Ron Owens’s book, “Oklahoma Heroes, A Tribute to Fallen Law Enforcement Officers lists Benjamin’s name and has a short story of his shooting. Benjamin is also listed on The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc.’s web site, www.odmp.org  This is a national web page to honor all Law Enforcement Officers killed in the line on duty

 There are more questions then facts known about the life and death of Benjamin F. Jones because little is known of the true circumstances that surround his shooting and his early childhood. We do know he was well respected and known within the Choctaw community. He is buried in the North McAlester Cemetery and his tombstone says; “Gone but Not Forgotten”. 

 Written by Jerome Arndt, Jr.

 January 14, 2007

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