My great, great grandfather........ oklemem/Agencies/Tribal%20Law%20Enforcement.htm Dave Ridge, Sheriff Saline District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory Jess Sunday was just completing a term as Sheriff of Saline District and his half brother, Dave Ridge, had been elected to take his place. About noon on Sunday, September 20, 1897, Sheriff-Elect Dave Ridge was on his way to the Baggett store to pick up some items his wife had sent him for. Ridge ran into some friends and had several drinks with them. Realizing that it was late, about 6:00 p.m., and he still needed to get the items from the store, Ridge headed over to the Baggett store which was closed. Desperate to get the items for his wife, he began banging on the door to the store. Tom Baggett and his family lived above the store. Baggett leaned out of the window above the store and told Ridge to leave because he was drunk. Baggett had closed the store early that day due to the rowdy drinking of several men and a warning there might be trouble later. As Ridge and Baggett argued over the closed store, a shot came from across the street hitting Baggett and killing him. Ridge stayed around with a gathering crowd to help Mrs. Baggett and her four daughters. About an hour later, two witnesses, one of whom was Jesse Sunday’s son, Andy, and Dave Ridge met two men on a trail about 200 yards away from the shooting scene. The two men were Sampson Rogers and Wilson Towery. Ridge confronted Rogers with the fact that he had seen him fire the shot that killed Baggett. Rogers, enraged, then hit Ridge over the head with a whiskey bottle. Andy Sunday then stepped out and got the men to leave his uncle alone. Dave Ridge died from his head injuries that night. Sheriff Jesse Sunday was then ten miles east of Saline guarding some prisoners when the killings occurred. Notified of the murders, he rode to Saline and began investigating. He deputized several men including Wilson Towery and Cooie Bolin, both of whom had witnessed the Ridge murder. Sunday and Bolin went to the nearby home of Jim Teehee to see if anyone there had witnessed anything. John Colvard and Martin Rowe were sitting on the porch, Colvard with a rifle across his lap. Sunday took the rifle away from Colvard without resistance, talked with the men and was told they knew nothing of the killings. Bolin and Sunday walked back to their horses when Rowe opened fire on them hitting Sunday. Sunday dropped Colvard’s confiscated rifle, Bolin picked it up and began firing at the fleeing Martin Rowe while the wounded Sheriff Sunday was trying to catch his horse. Andy Sunday found his wounded father by a tree near the Teehee home the next morning. He took him to the Teehee home where the sheriff died that night. Jesse Sunday was survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters. Sampson Rogers was indicted for the murder of Dave Ridge but was freed after witnesses refused to testify against him. Sheriff Dave Ridge was survived by his wife and four children.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:27:47 +0000