The McFarlands had anticipated the arrival of the Brookses, who they correctly guessed would not be working on the farm on a rainy day. Jim, Joe and Sam McFarland and Lon Riddle positioned themselves behind and around the buildings across the street from the Spokogee post office, located in Butler’s store. Jim McFarland sent old man George Riddle off to run errands. If the Brookses started anything, the McFarlands would reply with lead. But George Riddle must have thought he was safe, since he was unarmed.

When Rutherford and Hill returned from breakfast, they noticed that the Riddles and McFarlands were already in town. The two partners went back to their office to talk business. Hill was standing at the front window when he saw three horsemen ride into town. ‘Here are the Brookses,’ he said. ‘This thing is coming off right now or someone is going to show the white feather.’

It was about 10 o’clock. Old man George Riddle had just entered the post office when Willis, Clifton and John Brooks rode up and hitched their horses. The McFarlands’ plan of using George Riddle to get the Brookses riled up was sure to work.

Rutherford, who held a commission as a U.S. deputy marshal among his many titles, picked up his Winchester and walked to the front door of his office. Rutherford had no sooner thrown a shell into the chamber than it discharged into the floor. Hill would later say: ‘I will wonder to the end of my days whether that shot was accidental as Rutherford claimed. Of one thing I am certain, it was the shot that started the gunfight. No one on the street knew where it came from.’

John Brooks, who had tangled with Lon Riddle on July 1, was the first to enter the post office. Finding George Riddle there, he began to threaten and slap the old man around. Riddle backed his way out of the post office, right into Willis Brooks, and said, ‘Brooks, you can kill me, I am unarmed.’ Willis replied, ‘I will kill you!’ Cursing the old man, Willis levered a shell into his Winchester.

Rutherford, stepping onto the edge of the street, cried out: ‘I am an officer of the law. You must not do that, Willis!’ From the window, Hill could see Sam McFarland across the street begin to fire his six-shooter rather wildly–seemingly not trying to hit anything but only to create a ruckus or to taunt the Brookses. In the commotion, the terrified George Riddle suddenly turned and ran toward Rutherford, appealing for protection.

Willis Brooks took aim and fired his rifle at the fleeing target. The ball struck Riddle in the back of the head, tearing away part of his skull. George Riddle collapsed face down in front of Rutherford. The old man’s blood sprinkled Rutherford’s shirt and the barrel of his rifle. Then all hell broke loose. Lead and smoke filled the air for more than a minute. Willis wasted precious seconds firing two more shots into the dying Riddle before a bullet hit him in the right hip, passing clean through his body. When hit, Willis jumped high into the air and fell head first into the muddy street. He rose to his knees long enough to fire several more shots before a bullet to the chest ended his life.

Clifton Brooks was shot once in the leg, once in the neck and once in the chest. One of the bullets first passed through his gun hand. The wound was so painful that Brooks threw down his gun and tried to run. Lon Riddle and Jim McFarland, both on horseback, chased down young Brooks and killed him. He was cut down by a bullet in the back that severed his spinal column. John Brooks was hit by a steel-jacketed bullet and collapsed in the back door of the post office, near death.

When the smoke cleared, Willis and Clifton Brooks lay dead and George Riddle and John Brooks lay dying. The bodies of Willis and Clifton were sent home in the back of a wagon commandeered by Hill and Rutherford. Riddle and John Brooks were placed on cots and carried to vacant store buildings. Doctor Townsend, the attending physician, said there was absolutely no hope for George Riddle. Later that afternoon, Riddle died.

Rutherford immediately dispatched a rider to Eufaula to tell Deputy Marshal Grant Johnson what had happened. He then ordered Lon Riddle and Joe and Jim McFarland to surrender themselves to Hill, which they did. Sam McFarland, for whatever reason, was not arrested. Hill took the guns from the three prisoners and put the men in the back room of the office. Hill asked Rutherford what he was going to do with that gang of murderers, and Rutherford replied that he planned to take them to Eufaula and turn them over to Johnson.

About 3 o’clock, two buggies pulled up in front of the office. Jesse Hill looked out the window and saw a large, angry crowd forming. Most of the mob had Winchesters. Hill strapped on Willis Brooks’ six-shooter. With a Winchester across his arm, Rutherford stepped out the door onto a dry goods box and addressed the crowd: ‘These men are our prisoners. We are taking them to Eufaula to turn them over to the officers of the law. If there is a cap snapped, somebody will get killed.’ He then turned to Hill and said, ‘Bring out the prisoners.’

They loaded the prisoners into the front buggy and followed, with the guns of the living and the dead, in the second buggy. It figured to be a mighty long trip to Eufaula. As the party came to a wooded section of the road, Jim McFarland mentioned the possibility of an ambush. Rutherford gave Riddle and Jim McFarland each a Winchester.

When word of the gunfight reached Deputy Marshal Johnson at Eufaula, he immediately set out for Spokogee accompanied by Indian policeman Ima Boone and another officer. Soon after dark, about five or six miles from Eufaula, Rutherford and Hill met Johnson on the road and turned their prisoners over to him. Hill and Rutherford continued into town, and after turning all the weapons over to the U.S. commissioner there, caught a late train for Muskogee.

Late Monday evening, Maggie Brooks, with her 15-year-old son Earl and 13-year-old daughter Lela, also made the long wagon ride to Eufaula. They drove all night to bring the bodies of Willis and Clifton to the undertaker. After the bodies were prepared for burial, they were taken by train to Checotah and laid to rest at the Indian cemetery there. They were buried near Willis’ sister, Francis Baker, who had died of measles in 1899, and Willis and Maggie’s son Thomas.

The McFarlands and Alonzo Riddle were quickly arraigned in the court of the U.S. commissioner marshal at Eufaula. They were represented at their preliminary hearing by Morton Rutherford’s uncle and law partner, Colonel William M. Cravens. The men refused to testify. Because no one came forth to testify against them, charges were dismissed on Wednesday, September 24, 1902. John Brooks was charged with murder for his part in the shootout, but, because of his condition, he was allowed to remain in Spokogee.

John Brooks was slow to recover. Blood poisoning had set in, and The Holdenville Times reported on September 27 that ‘death is certain to ensue from the wound. Dr. Townsend, who is attending Brooks, says…it will be only a question of a day or two until death will occur.’ The newspaper and the doctor were wrong. John Brooks recovered, though it was more than five years before charges against him were officially dismissed. Brooks was represented at his trial by none other than S. Morton Rutherford.

Jim McFarland did not escape retribution. On Monday, October 13, about three weeks after the gunfight at Spokogee, Jim and his wife, Sarah, drove a wagon into Weleetka to do some shopping. Accompanying them on horseback were Sandy Watson and Bill Franklin. That afternoon, Jim and Sarah headed home. Watson and Franklin said they would join them later. Along the way, McFarland was shot in the back, from ambush, with a steel-jacketed bullet. He managed to jump from the wagon and fire one shot in the direction of his assailant before falling over dead. Sarah saw no one. Soon, Watson and Franklin rode up, put McFarland’s body in the wagon and took him home. Jim McFarland was buried in an unmarked grave at the Watson­Wiley cemetery near Old Watsonville.

Several rumors circulated as to who killed Jim McFarland. Some folks in the area thought a member of the Brooks family, perhaps Henry, had fired the fatal shot. Some pointed an accusing finger at Sarah’s half-brother. Others believed McFarland was killed by Turner Scott, a member of Jim’s own gang. In any event, no one tried very hard to find Jim McFarland’s killer. Most believed he had gotten what he deserved.

The tracks finally reached Spokogee, and on April 1, 1903, the Fort Smith & Western Railroad ran the first train through the small town. The population at that time was about 225. The arrival of the railroad and the end of the Brooks­ McFarland feud brought prosperity and civilization. The Dogtown Settlement ceased to be. In exchange for a new railroad roundhouse on the north end of town, the residents agreed to change the town’s name from Spokogee to Dustin, in honor of Henry C. Dustin, an official of the Fort Smith & Western Railroad. Dustin became the legal name on May 9, 1904.

The deaths of Willis Brooks and Jim McFarland signaled the end of an era when disputes were settled with gun smoke and hot lead. With them also died the old feud. Today, many of their descendants still call the area around Dustin home.

Some newspaper accounts erroneously reported that Henry Brooks was killed about the same time as Jim McFarland. Henry, though, was arrested in Caddo County in 1905 for horse theft and went on to serve five years at the Territorial Prison at Lansing, Kan., and the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester. Henry was paroled in 1911 and returned to the mountains of Lawrence County, Ala., to care for his elderly mother. He resumed the age-old mountain tradition of distilling moonshine and was shot down by a posse on January 11, 1920, when he resisted arrest.

Henry was the last remaining son of Jenny Brooks. The ancient lady of the mountains followed her sons to the grave on March 29, 1924, at the age of 98, proud of the fact that all her boys had ‘died like men, with their boots on.’

---

This article was written by Edward Herringt and originally appeared in the April 1997 issue of Wild West.

For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today!

Pages: 1 2