George served as a hired servant with a Confederate infantry regiment during the American Civil War. George also stated that he had four brothers and two sisters by the same father and mother: Crawford, Abner, Joseph, Blevens, Mary, and Susie. His father was Thornton Goldsby of Selma, Alabama and his mother Hester King, who resided on her own place west of Summerfield Road between Selma and Marion, Alabama. In a signed deposition on January 29, 1912, George Goldsby stated that he was born in Perry County, Alabama on February 22, 1843. Goldsby had one sister, Georgia, and two brothers, Luther and Clarence. Goldsby's mother was a Cherokee freedman, with mixed African, Native, and white ancestry. Goldsby's father, George Goldsby, was from Perry County, Alabama, a sergeant of the Tenth United States Cavalry, and a Buffalo Soldier. George and Ellen (née Beck) Goldsby on Februat Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas. These sketches provide a light and entertaining glimpse into the complex history of Fort Smith.Goldsby was born to Sgt. This sketch is part of a series, “Fort Smith Minutes,” originally developed by the park staff to provide one minute long public service announcements for local radio stations. References: Marauders of the Indian Nations by Glenn Shirley Fort Smith Elevator. A $1300 reward was offered for his capture after killing Ernest Melton his first death sentence was pronounced on April 13 he killed Larry Keating on July 26, two times thirteen Judge Parker took 13 minutes to charge the jury in the Keating case the actual hours used in the trial numbered 13 there were 13 witnesses for the prosecution the jury took 13 minutes to find him guilty and he fell though the trap of the gallows at 2:13 p.m. Crawford Goldsby, alias Cherokee Bill, remains interred there today.Īfter his death, many people noted the significance of the unlucky number 13 in Bill's life. His body was placed in a coffin and taken later that day to Fort Gibson for burial. Twelve minutes later the ropes that bound his limbs were removed, as were the handcuffs and shackles. Cherokee Bill's neck was broken and death came quickly. At 2:13 p.m., he dropped in a fall of six feet. Bill stepped forward, his feet on the trap door and spoke to the crowd, saying, "Good-bye, all you chums down that way." His arms and legs were tied and a black hood placed over his head. At one point, the outlaw reportedly remarked that "This is about as good a day to die as any." Once Bill was on the scaffold, he eyed the crowd, saw his mother, and said "Mother, you ought not to have come up here." She replied, "I can go wherever you go."Īt that time, the death warrant was read and Father Pius recited a short prayer. With a force of four guards, his mother, Father Pius and Amanda Foster accompanied Bill, handcuffed and shackled, from the jail to the gallows. One rickety shed near the gallows collapsed under the weight of its crowd.Īs the scheduled time of execution, 2:00 p.m., approached, Bill announced that he was ready to go at any time. Newspaper reports said the scene "though not disorderly, was one of indescribable excitement." People were perched on stone walls and the roofs of nearby buildings, houses and sheds. Some 2,000 to 3,000 sightseers surrounded the gallows enclosure that day. Later that morning and early afternoon, his mother, brother, stepsister, the priest, and Amanda Foster, his childhood nurse, came to pay their last visits. Patrick's Day, 1896, singing and whistling according to reports from other prisoners. Cherokee Bill saw the priest every day thereafter. Five days before the execution, though, he accepted religious advice from Father Pius of the German Catholic Church in Fort Smith. In fact, he spent most of his time playing poker with the other prisoners, manipulating the cards through the gratings on his cell door. Up until the days immediately preceding his hanging, Cherokee Bill seemed little concerned with the affair.
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